Petrol tank testing - filling station | Major Oil Company, Sao Paolo, Brazil

Newspapers reported that an explosion in the basement of an office block during maintenance work had put two contractors employees in hospital and that, from the smell of petrol, the nearby filling station was blamed for the problem. MassTech licensees had failed the ullage spaces of two of the 8 tanks on site but the oil company had chosen to commission a test from another company that passed them. Local regulators insisted that MassTech be called in to investigate. The company sent its detection team from England to support the local licensee. The team confirmed the earlier findings and found that, following a petrol delivery to the site, one of the two tanks had been overfilled allowing petrol to pour out of the ullage leak site. It was subsequently proved that the tank gauging system, which had never once been maintained incorrectly recorded the fuel heights on site and in consequence, a delivery greater than the amount of the true ullage space had been attempted.