Fiberglass underground petroleum storage systems

Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) products have been in use for many years in a wide variety of products and markets. The automotive, marine, military, chemical, and petroleum markets have made extensive use of FRP. Today, over 300,000 FRP tanks and over 40,000,000 feet of FRP pipe are in service in petroleum marketing as well as industrial and commercial storage applications. In the early 1960's the American Petroleum Institute invited the FRP industry to design FRP underground tanks to solve their corrosion caused underground leaker problems. The challenge was accepted and in 1965 FRP tanks were introduced to the petroleum storage marketplace. FRP pipe, specifically designed for underground petroleum use, was Underwriter's Laboratories tested and listed and introduced in 1968. These fiberglass tanks and pipe have a 25 year perfect record against both internal and external corrosion. The FRP tank and pipe performance record has been outstanding. Less than 1/2 of 1% have ever been involved in an in-ground failure. When first introduced, FRP tanks carried an initial cost premium of 50 to 100% over unprotected steel. Since all Underground Storage Tank (UST) systems must be corrosion protected, initial FRP costs are now competitive with corrosion protected steel