“We already went out to bid on the project, and we are actually doing bid evaluation now, looking at the operability of the design to see how we can best operate it safely, and also for benefit of the customers in terms of the service we can offer,” he said.
Mr Jones, speaking at the 12th annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook conference, said Vopak had already invested $1 billion in the former BORCO facility, making it the largest oil storage terminal in the region.
Mr Jones said the BORCO facility was acquired at a cost of $950 million, and had grown from a 14 million to 21 million-barrel storage capacity, with some $250 million invested in the existing terminal.
He said the cost of the next phase of expansion will be another $350 million, which will increase the terminal facility’s storage capacity by an additional six million barrels.
“We hope within the next couple of weeks we will be able to complete negotiations with the contractor and go back to our board with the entire economic package, and say: ‘Here is the proposal, here is what we can achieve, how we can do it, here is the return’, and hopefully successfully get approval from our board to go ahead and do it, and get the contract signed” he said.
According to Mr Jones, the storage facility will be built to modern standards, and do a series of blending opportunities and services with its clients. “We are confident that we will probably contract in the next four to six weeks, by the end of April, or May the latest,” he said.
Once approved and the contract is signed, Mr Jones said they expect to have the facility up in 24 months, with the first tanks available by the end of December 2011.
He reported that some 600 persons would be employed at the peak of construction, with 200 to 300 persons locally employed.
Mr Jones said the project will significantly impact the Grand Bahama economy, affecting restaurants, taxi cabs driver and flights in and out of Freeport.
“The shipyard probably buys most of the tickets on American, which has 2,400 seats sold to the shipyard for their people coming in, and our project will further impact the island of Grand Bahama,” he said.
Mr Jones said there was a growing demand for petroleum products, gasoline and other derivatives, and BORCO will actively pursue the expansion program. He said the plant’s geographic location makes it an attractive storage terminal for North America and European markets.
