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Government oil pipeline is to be sold off [Western Daily Press (UK)]
[July 19, 2014]

Government oil pipeline is to be sold off [Western Daily Press (UK)]


(Western Daily Press (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Ministry of Defence is to sell off the Government Pipeline and Storage System (GPSS), ministers have confir med.

The Western Daily Press re-vealed in 2012 that the network consisting of some 1,550 miles (2,500km) of pipeline and 46 other facilities which carries fuel for military and civil users was likely to be sold. It distributes 40 per cent of aviation fuel. Measures allowing the sale were included in the Energy Act last year and ministers ran a consultation on the possible implications of a privatisation. In a written statement to MPs, Defence Support Minister Philip Dunne said: "It remains the case that commercial customers account for the majority of the GPSS throughput. MoD undertook market testing earlier this year and considers there to be a significant level of interest in purchasing the GPSS.



"We have concluded that sale of the GPSS would allow Government to transfer the financial risks of operating in the downstream oil market to the private sector, while still preserving the GPSS's military capability and ensuring that national resilience is not compromised." The system was built during the Cold War to make the fuel supply network to the RAF more secure. More than 2,000 miles of underground pipelines criss-cross Britain. In the West, the pipeline runs from Avonmouth to a storage site at Portishead and then east across North Somerset to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, north up through Purton and towards Brize Norton and east again to bases in the south like Aldermaston and Greenham Common. It also supplies Heathrow. Another link goes north from Portishead across the Avon, and up through Gloucestershire.

How many miles the pipeline consists of under Britain 1,550 (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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