“The Government has a medium to long-term aspiration to reduce and if possible eliminate floating bunker storage,” Chief Minister Peter Caruana told the territory’s parliament. He was answering questions put by Joe Bossano, leader of the opposition Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party.

Caruana said re-activating the King’s Lines tank farm was one of the options.

“King’s Lines is one of the resources available to try to use for this policy objective.”

King’s Lines was built in 1954 for the British Navy. It is not in use but sources told Bunkerworld it had the capacity to store some 250,000 metric tonnes (mt) of product.

“The Government has received several proposals for the future use of King’s Lines,” Caruana told parliament. “We’ve four or five applications.”

Caruana did not say who the applicants were but local reports said they included some of Gibraltar’s bunker suppliers.

Gibraltar’s bunker market is currently served by three floating storage vessels, an arrangement that has come under attack from Spanish politicians and environmentalists who argue they present a heightened risk of oil spills.

The King’s Line storage terminal is set inside the rock that dominates Gibraltar. It was last used by the bunkering arm of Chevron.

Sources told Bunkerworld that “a great deal of money” would be needed to renovate King’s Lines to an acceptable standard.

In particular there would need to be marine access to discharge tankers and load bunker barges.

The terminal was previously served from Gibraltar’s North Jetty but that jetty is now predominately used by cruise ships.

Gibraltar’s bunker suppliers delivered nearly 4.7 million metric tonnes (mt) of product in 2009, up from 4.2 million in 2008.

Bunkering is key part of the territory’s economy.