A multi-million pound project to upgrade and modernise the Eastern jetty at the Falmouth Petroleum Limited (FPL) oil terminal will start on March 21.

The jack-up rig Deep Diver owned by Fugro GeoServices which will play a major role in the project arrived in the port a week ago and is now preparing equipment.

The new Eastern wharf will be 250 metres long with another 50 metres of link bridges over two mooring dolphins to the existing north dolphin on the end of the current wharf. Much of the old wooden jetty is in a poor state of repair, ravaged by marine borers over the passage of time; the wharf will be replaced by a modern piled structure with concrete walkways.

A line of steel piles will be driven into the seabed a few metres outside of the old jetty to form the main structure of the new wharf.

FPL, a subsidiary of Miami-based World Fuel Services (WFS), is engaged in bunker servicing and supply of marine fuels and lubricants. A privately owned bunker service company FPL is billed as the UK’s number one offshore Marine Oil Terminal for fuel oil and marine diesel.

For the past 18 months the company has invested in a major refurbishment programme to build new tanks, install new pipelines, a bund wall and a waste processing unit. Today the terminal is one of the most state of the art, environmentally compliant bunkering terminals in the UK.

Originally named the Prince of Wales wharf in the 1860s, the Eastern jetty has always been one of the most important berths within the port used by oil tankers bringing in a variety of petroleum products.

The tank farm has a capacity of 50,000 tonnes. FPL currently has a terminal throughput in the region of 750,000 tonnes of fuel oil annually to vessels in Falmouth bay or the harbour. It is also a sea fed terminal strategically placed to supply Cornwall’s fuel distributors, relieving Cornish roads of 2,500 truck movements from Devon each year.

The company has pumped millions of pounds into the local economy over many years as a result of the bunkering operation and associated spin- off marine industries thus supporting a large number of jobs within the Port of Falmouth.