Company History


Experience & Innovation Within the Oil Industry

History of Willacy Oil Services

Willacy Oil Services is synonymous with the development of petrochemical tank cleaning and sludge treatment systems. Read more below about our journey to date of the milestones we’ve reached to get us where we are today…

1989

Willacy Oil Services was founded with the introduction of oil recovery and sludge stabilisation systems into the UK refineries.

1991

Due to the success of the business, Willacy moved into its purpose built headquarters in Sandycroft, UK.

1992

Willacy Oil Services introduced the Hydrodredger for the online removal of sludge from API separator and water treatment streams.

1993

Awarded a 3 year tank cleaning contract at Esso Fawley refinery.

1995

Willacy Oil Services introduced our patented and unique sludge profiler of oil tanks (SPOT system).

1998

Processed 15,000m3 of difficult emulsion in STATOIL Mongstat refinery Norway.

1999

Celebrated 10 years of success with the introduction of the High Solids Pre-Treatment unit and the installation of a fixed plant in BP Kwinana refinery Australia.

1999

All eyes were on Willacy Oil Services as we processed the sludge from Shells Brent Spa platform. Due to Environmental concerns the platform was towed into a Norwegian Fjord where we successfully treated the crude oil residues from the decommissioning project.

2000

Cleaned 11 large diameter crude tanks that were severely damaged due to a large earthquake in Turkey. Whilst treating 30,000m3 of sludge we recovered 17,000m3 of crude oil.

2001

After successfully cleaning over 1km of contaminated pipe track stones, Willacy Oil Services were awarded a 3 year contract at the BP Coryton refinery.

2005

Successful commissioning of the fixed oily sludge treatment facility in Kuwait. The plant was designed to treat all sludges generated from the 3 KNPC refineries in Kuwait and met all the criteria stipulated by KNPC.

2008

Processed 350,000 barrels of emulsified slop oil in Trinidad & Tobago.

2009

Secured a large contract for processing oily sludge at the Shell Clyde Refinery in Sydney Australia.

2010

Started work on a contract to clean and process sludge from 7 crude oil tanks at HELPE Petroleum Greece.

2010

Supplied an automated tank cleaning and oil recovery system to South Africa.

2011

Supplied an automated tank cleaning system to China.

2013

Supplied a full set of tank cleaning and oil recovery systems to Nigeria.

2014

Supplied a High Solids Pre-treatment Unit for a fixed plant in China.

2015

Willacy Oil Services becomes part of the Cleansing Service Group a large privately owned UK waste management company.

2016

Willacy Oil Services treat sludge at a large UK utilities company, resulting in significant off-site disposal cost savings for the water treatment works.

2016

Willacy Oil Services introduce the latest Hydraulic Power Pack into our fleet, starting the upgrading programme.