A single tank is a product. A tank farm is a system. Zhongneng Huajian recently signed an EPC contract for an East African fuel depot that includes 12 vertical storage tanks, interconnecting piping, a fire water tank, secondary containment bunds and cathodic protection-all under one commercial and technical wrapper.
The depot scope
8 × 2,000 m³ vertical diesel tanks, API 650, fixed cone roof
2 × 1,000 m³ vertical gasoline tanks, internal floating roof, with rim seal and gauge well
2 × 500 m³ vertical jet fuel tanks, low-pressure nitrogen blanket
1 × 500 m³ fire water tank, epoxy-lined, with fire pump suction nozzle
Interconnecting piping: carbon steel, schedule 40, welded, with expansion loops
Secondary containment: concrete bund with 110 % of largest tank volume
Cathodic protection: sacrificial anodes on buried piping and tank bottoms
Control system: level gauges, leak detection, pump interlocks, fire alarm
Why EPC matters at depot scale
The failure mode of a tank farm is not a single tank leaking-it is interfaces. The fire water tank must be sized to the largest tank fire, not a round number. The bund wall must contain the largest tank volume plus rainfall. The piping must allow thermal expansion without pulling nozzle loads off the shell. ZN's engineering team holds all these drawings in one register, so a change in tank diameter automatically updates the bund volume and pipe routing.
Execution plan
Phase 1: civil works-ring beams, bund walls, pipe trenches, fire water tank foundation
Phase 2: tank erection-shell courses, roof, nozzles, hydrotest, coating
Phase 3: piping and instrumentation-welding, NDT, pressure test, control loop check
Phase 4: commissioning-water test, leak test, pump start, fire system function test
The depot is scheduled for 14 months from site handover, with ZN supplying a project manager, QC engineer and welding supervisor on site throughout.
FAQ snippet
"What is the largest tank farm ZN has built?" The Sinograin Hefei 14 × 10,000 m³ edible oil reserve is the largest single-phase farm in the portfolio; the East African depot is the largest fuel depot EPC to date. The same engineering discipline scales from 500 m³ to 10,000 m³ per tank.
For fuel depot owners, ZN offers either full EPC or a tank-plus-piping package where the owner manages civil works locally-the drawing register and inspection dossier stay identical.
