That would be real comfortable adding a circuit to that panel while resting against the grounded steel tank.
You just need to use cowboy approach to "mount" yourself onto the oil tank.. lol
Funny thing, oil tank looks like it's been there forever, that panel does look *THAT* old though, either does the wiring coming out of it, i'd guess mid to late 80's for the panel and like, original to the house oil tank.. so one can only guess it was an un-inspected subpanel that was added later.. and the mains is somewhere else
I've seen someone go one step further by putting a wall up in front of the Oil Tank and just having a small access door (smaller than the panel) to reach through.
I wish there was a way to teach the other Trades about this kind of thing.
Bill
The first image looks like that equitment was installed after the oil tank was installed, so the electrical installer would be at fault.
That is the problem with homeowner joe, or his "buddy" doing work that is better left to someone with experience and a licence. I was at both locations for service calls, and i see this all the time. It really is a shame
To rub more salt into this wound:
And what about whoever it was who installed the TV antenna cabling there?
The splitter and some of that coax is hanging right over that panel...not to mention it's nicely resting over the sharp flange of that box.
It looks as though the coax was cut a little too short (look at the cable going up into the ceiling to the right) and someone just pulled this messa cross the panel to make it reach.
Building a cupboard around electrical panels is a favorite trick here. I've seen some where the "access" door somebody has left is so small you can barely get your arm in to open a breaker.