Crude Oil Tank Farm: Coatings Help
Investors Make Money

By: Jennifer Kramer

Those of us in the industry know that there is money to be made in coatings. What may not be apparent is the fact that coatings have direct ties to the stock market – beyond the portfolios of the manufacturers, that is. At a tank farm in Cushing, Oklahoma crude oil traders in New York City can (in part) thank protective coatings for their future fortunes.


Owned by SemGroup Corporation, the Cushing tank farm is the delivery and trade point for the New York Mercantile Exchange. “With the volatility in the oil market, the tank farm needed to expand,” explains Carl Karner, PE with SemCrude LP. “We store the crude oil for the traders so when the market picked up (went contango), we needed to add tanks – approximately $150 million dollars worth of new construction at the tank farm. Each tank typically holds 250,000 barrels which means that each tank had a little over 30,000 square feet of new steel to be coated.”

Coating Contango

With oil prices literally rising and falling on a moment-by-moment basis, there was no time to spare. Once the tanks were erected, they had to be put into service ASAP. “We only specify coatings on the bottom of the tanks and about two-feet up the walls,” Karner explains. “This is a protection against the salt water that naturally occurs at the bottom of the crude oil storage tanks.”


This highly corrosive environment required a rugged coating. “We had originally used an epoxy that required DH units and days to cure,” says Karner. “In this hot contango market, we just didn’t have the time. So we switched to Sherwin-Williams’ Fast Clad ER Epoxy which requires one coat and has a quick return-to-service.” Designed for immersion service in salt water ballast tanks and fuel/sea water ballast tanks, Fast Clad ER Epoxy would provide the protection and immediacy the owners needed.

Of other concern -- the environment and the surrounding neighborhood. “There is an elementary school across the road to the east,” Karner describes. “In the past, polyester-based coatings have caused smells to travel. And this has caused issues. We didn’t want to disrupt the kids. And fortunately, odor isn’t an issue with Fast Clad since it is 100 percent solids so there is no smell.” Coating specified, SemGroup turned to the experienced crew from Guthrie Industrial Coatings to get the job done.


Coatings ROI

After setting up explosion-proof lighting and following all the OSHA-mandated rules for confined space safety, the Guthrie crew began the intense surface prep process. “It took three full days to blast all of the new steel tanks,” Karner recounts.


Suited up, wearing full hoods and air-supplied respirators, the crew used silicone sand to blast the bottom and two-feet up the walls of each tank to the NACE No. 2/ SSPC-SP 10 standard for Near White Metal. “Since the job began in February and the tanks have external roofs that float about six feet above them, it means that they are not insulated. The guys had DH equipment running to keep the steel at a constant temperature,” says Karner. The debris was vacuumed and swept with compressed air.


Then, swapping their blasting PPE for lighter gear, the crew put on Tyvek suits, half-mask respirators, and goggles in preparation for the coatings application. “They didn’t need the full air-supplied respirators,” explains Karner, “because the coating has no VOCs.” Once properly dressed, the Guthrie crew first stripe coated the welds and seams with Fast Clad ER Epoxy. Then it was time for the spray application.


Karner explains how the coatings stayed warm in spite of the winter chill: “The pallets with the coatings had been heated to room temperature and we also used the DH equipment to heat the coatings. The plural component equipment also heated the epoxy to approximately 130°F to 160°F by the time it reached the nozzle. And it had about a 90 second pot life. A Sherwin-Williams’ rep supplied the equipment and stayed outside the tank running it while the coatings crew was inside spraying.”


The crew spray-applied the edge-retentive, high solids epoxy Bisphenol A amine coating to a thickness of 15 to 20 mils DFT. “It looked like sparkling porcelain in a bathroom,” Karner chuckles, “and was dry to walk on in four hours. We were able to fill the finished tanks with crude oil the following day.”


“Using this fast cure epoxy shrunk our project off-line time from two weeks to three days. We were able to catch more oil. Of course the coatings did cost more per tank, about $10,000, but we will make it up in the marketplace – about $350,000 to $400,000.” Not a bad return on investment.

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