OIL: Quarry Tank

Abandoned stone quarries, if they are used at all, are generally used only as swimming holes. But in the last year Esso Standard Oil has spent about $500,000 making an oil storage tank out of a vacant quarry at Wind Gap, Pa. Last week Esso pumped the first oil from its Linden, N.J. Bayway Refinery 65 miles through a 6-in. pipeline into the huge pit, capable of holding about 1,000,000 bbls. of heating oil.

If the operation is successful, oil manufactured at Bayway during the summer will be pumped into the quarry, where it will float on the water, be covered with 250 three-ton floating steel pontoons. In winter the oil will be piped back for distribution to homes. Esso owns or has options on nine other quarries in the area capable of holding 8,000,000 bbls., enough to heat 225,000 homes for a year.