Oil refinery at Nordhavn

Facts

Fire risk at the port

By Henrik Harnow, Museumsinspektør, Ph.D., Odense Bys Museer (18 stories)

Around the year 1900, the need to store inflammable liquids began to affect Denmark's ports. Storage of petroleum and oil was prohibited in towns and cities, so storage tanks became commonplace at all main ports and also influenced the development of what is now Port of Copenhagen. As consumption rose, so too did the need for storage facilities. In 1915-17, the Free Port was extended northwards, and the Redmolen jetty was converted into a terminal for storage of fuel oil. The old stone jetty was equipped with wooden unloading wharves on both sides and also deepened. The terminal was completed in 1917, and in the years that followed served as a storage terminal for a number of well-known firms. When the terminal had been extended to full capacity in the 1930s, it contained 19 tanks.

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Denmark's best preserved oil terminal

Story written by Henrik Harnow

Time / Periode 1917

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A walk along the paved access road to the only preserved terminal in the area is like stepping back in time to how it stood in the 1930s on completion. This terminal was built concurrently with the others of its type and was extended until the 1930s. The storage tanks and the surrounding concrete walls, warehouse and administration building are all preserved. The walls were a requirement from the fire authorities and were built to secure the entire contents of the tanks if they leaked. The terminal is graced by a small, modernistic tower with a round copper tank in miniature as the flag tower. This is Denmark's most intact terminal of its type and a great rarity. The other sections of the Redmolen terminal have largely been demolished, but there are still traces of the wharves that served some of country's first tankers.