Vitol’s new $126 million oil products terminal is set to receive this weekend 2-3 waterborne fuel cargoes, including one gasoline cargo. The rack operations at the terminal will start up in March as Vitol continues to fill up the storage tanks in the second half of February. The official opening of the terminal is set for late April.
For jobbers in Florida, the new terminal provides another import facility to handle fuel cargoes from the Gulf Coast, the Caribbean, Europe and Canada.
For Vitol, the terminal offers a supply outlet into a growing Florida fuel market as well as flexibility in regional supply logistics. Florida is seen as the go-to market in the U.S. to expand oil products storage capacity, judging by the high number of new tanks that came onstream in 2009 and will be commissioned in 2010.
The products tank storage market in Florida is seen well-balanced to oversupplied after taking into account the newly commissioned tanks as well as future projects, terminal operators said last year.
Port Everglades, which is already or will be seeing a jump in new storage capacity, is singled out as a market that could be oversupplied. Port Everglades is the gateway to Miami and Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic
coast. Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa are considered balanced.
The new Vitol terminal at Port Canaveral has 24 tanks for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, liquid propane gas and fuel oil. The terminal will have a six bay truck rack and close access to the I-95 corridor and the greater Orlando area. It is expected that gasoline and diesel jobbers who make long hauls from Port Everglades, Tampa, or Jacksonville will be among the first customers, and the busy Orlando airport was also a crucial factor in the build. Vitol could also use the terminal as a storage facility, depending on the product forward price curves. Amid the current weak gasoline market sentiment, Vitol has the option to keep low-RVP gasoline in tanks ahead of the spring switch to summer grade fuel.