From the bund wall, a crude tank and a diesel tank are twins. From inside the lining, they are different services, and terminals that lini them identically discover the difference at the first API 653 internal, per our inspection guide.
The crude tank's real environment
Crude sits on a water bottom, saline, bacterially active, chloride rich, and under a sludge blanket that traps that chemistry against the floor. Corrosion concentrates on the floor plates and first shell course, exactly where high build linings earn their keep, while upper shell zones in crude service often run leaner systems or bare steel per the owner's corrosion strategy. Heated crude adds temperature to the floor service, pushing lining selection toward the phenolic end of our chemistry guide.
The product tank's different problem
Clean products bring less floor sludge but less tolerance: jet fuel demands linings that shed nothing, per the cleanliness caveats in our selection article, and diesel with modern bio components carries water and microbial activity that older diesel practice never met. Microbiologically influenced corrosion under water bottoms is now a recognised product tank issue, and full floor linings with disciplined water draining are the response.
Where the specifications converge
Both services end at the same application truths: Sa 2.5, salt limits, stripe coats on welds, DFT control, holiday testing before return to service, the QA sequence our lining failures article traced. The chemistry differs; the discipline does not.
One planning note for UAE terminals
Multi product flexibility is the regional trend, and a tank relined for diesel today may swing to something harsher within the lining's life. The phenolic insurance argument from our earlier guide applies with full force in Fujairah and Jebel Ali tankage.
MENA Industrial Supplies quotes crude and product tank systems from Dubai against cargo lists and inspection findings, same working day, via the oil, gas and refinery coatings page.