Company erects massive tanks in Kapolei for military to store fuel

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The federal government sought alternatives last year to store fuel in Hawaii and contracted Island Energy Services, which built several storage tanks in Kapolei.

The project came amid the military’s massive effort to defuel the Red Hill facility.

Island Energy Services held a blessing ceremony for five storage fuel tanks that they began building in October. Four of the tanks stand at 64 feet. The fifth is 56 feet tall.

They’ve also made existing facilities providing storage for a total of 1.5 million barrels of fuel.

A project of this scale typically takes over two years to construct, said John Mauer, CEO of Island Energy Services. They completed their tanks in just 10 months.

“We used our in-house resources, or engineering or maintenance or operations team, and put together a plan that we felt we could execute,” said Mauer. “It was the benefit of our own experience, but we also brought on a number of local contractors who had experience in the industry.”

Roger Babcock, director of the city’s Department of Environmental Services, said the city was involved in the permitting process and treated water flushed out from the facilities that needed repairs.

The city also proclaimed Thursday as Island Energy Services Day.

“The city is a large consumer of fuel and energy as well so that supply and being available when in emergencies and when there’s power outages is really critical to all to our operations,” said Babcock.

The storage was created at the request of the Defense Logistics Agency.

They awarded Island Energy Services with a $170 million contract.

“Thank you, mahalo for coming and doing this project this fast, was not easy, but it was necessary” said Brigadier General Gavin J. Gardner, Director for Logistics & Engineering of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. “But it was done safely expeditiously, and it enables our national security.”

“To be able to find an adequate and secure and safe and reliable alternative to Red Hill was extremely important,” said Mark Glick, the state’s Chief Energy Officer. “And especially since there’s such critical national security needs, that are supplied through this jet fuel and the other fields to be stored here so we were very pleased that there was a solution that came forth really rapidly.”

Island Energy Services stores different kinds of petroleum products.

The CEO added the transfer of any fuels will be done safely.

“It’s never without lack of enough effort and oversight to make sure everything goes well,” said Mauer. “And we’ve got a very experienced team that’s capable of providing the services.”

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