The planned shutdown of the Red Hill fuel storage facility on Oʻahu means the U.S. military is looking for alternate fuel storage sites in the Pacific. At least one is already under construction.
Local media in Australia generally refer to it simply as “a U.S. military asset,” which broke ground earlier this year.
When it’s finished, it will be the largest fuel storage facility in the country’s Northern Territory — with a capacity of 80 million gallons of fuel.
That’s less than a third of what the Red Hill tanks can store — but the location is crucial for the regional goals of the U.S. military.
It’s in the northern part of central Australia — just a few hundred miles from the southern tip of the Indonesian archipelago.
For the past decade, U.S. Marines have been rotating into nearby Darwin to deploy for part of the year — and the addition of a fuel depot in the same area fits into that broader strategy.
The facility also matches what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said was a target of “redistributing our fuel reserves across the Indo-Pacific.”
Construction and operation of the $270 million fuel complex will be carried out by Crowley Solutions — a privately-held Florida-based logistics company and defense contractor.
According to the company’s website, construction plans include 11 tanks to hold jet fuel.
The company says construction should be completed by late next year.
