What you must do

In England and Wales if you store oil that is not used for agricultural purposes, eg to supply fuel for a haulage business or for heating houses, then you may need to comply with the Oil Storage Regulations.

In Northern Ireland you should consider meeting the requirements of the Oil Storage Regulations as they are designed to prevent water pollution. If you pollute the water environment, you are probably committing an offence under other legislation.

In Scotland you will need to comply with the Oil Storage Regulations for any oil that you store, including agricultural fuel oil.

• Oil storage
  

In Scotland if you carry out fuelling activities that could cause water pollution, eg if your activities are close to a watercourse, you must comply with certain General Binding Rules (GBR10 and GBR11).

• SEPA: The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 - A Practical Guide (pdf)
  

Storing agricultural fuel oil in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

If you store oil for agricultural use on a farm your storage facilities must comply with certain regulations if:

• in England and Wales, you store more than 1,500 litres of fuel oil and the storage tank was used or constructed on or after 1 September 1991
• in Northern Ireland, you store more than 1,250 litres of fuel oil and the storage tank was constructed on or after 21 July 2003.

Older storage facilities are normally exempt from the regulations. However, you may have to carry out improvement work if your environmental regulator considers that your facilities could cause pollution.

You must notify your environmental regulator in writing before you use new or substantially reconstructed or enlarged fuel storage areas.

• In England and Wales, the Environment Agency require at least 14 days' notice.
• In Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) require at least 28 days' notice.

• Contact your environmental regulator
  

You must:

• Construct all installations to last for at least 20 years with proper maintenance.
• Site the entire installation at least 10 metres from inland or coastal waters.
• If you have one oil storage container in a bund, the bund must be able to hold 110% of its volume. 
• If you have more than one container in a bund, the bund must be able to hold whichever of the following is greater:
• 25% of the total volume of the containers
• 110% of the largest container’s volume.
• Your secondary containment system (SCS) should have no outlet and be impermeable to oil and water.
• Construct bund walls so that they contain any fuel that may jet from the side of a tank, especially if the tank is raised from the ground. 
• Locate taps and valves within the bund and design them to discharge downwards to make sure any leaks do not jet over the side of the bund. When not in use, switch off and lock shut all taps and valves. 
• Fit a nozzle with an automatic shut-off device to any flexible discharge pipe that is permanently attached to a fuel tank. Lock the pipe within the bund when it is not in use.