Jamaica is one of three territories in which the group plans to finish land storage facilities by 2012, according to company filings to the US-based Securities and Commission (SEC) this month. The others include 500 million litres in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and 230 million litres in Tangiers, Morocco.
Aegean said that the strategic benefits arising from building these facilities would increase its revenue potential; strengthen its buying power; and generate incremental income by leasing storage space to third parties.
In April the Business Observer reported that Aegean planned to invest up to US$20 million in a land-based storage facility in Kingston, but the deal still awaited details including financing. The need for a land facility arose after it sold its single hull tanker Aegean IX, which operated as its floating storage facility in Jamaica. Aegean didn’t say what it would use as a replacement in the interim. However, the idea is to develop a land facility where it can store fuel including Marine fuel oil (MFO) and Marine gas oil and load its bunkers that supply vessels entering Jamaican waters. It entered into an agreement to purchase for US$9.8 million the property in Rockfort, Kingston, from which it currently operates, it stated in January SEC filings.
The Greek firm has been authorised by the Port Authority of Jamaica to act as a physical supplier of marine petroleum products in Jamaica and it services customers in the ports of Kingston and Ocho Rios while it is not restricted to those locations.
Aegean runs its operations with two double hull tankers and one single hull bunkering tanker. The bunkering firm currently has an arrangement that runs to 2012 with Petrojam to supply it with MFO and MGO, mainly, at a price equal to average PLATTS prices plus a margin.
Up to 2008, Jamaica represented 10 per cent of the company’s sales volumes by tonne, but the company did not disaggregate the sales data for 2009 when it saw 19.1 per cent increase in sales volumes.
Aegean did, however, say it entered three new markets last year, expanding its presence to 14 strategic locations worldwide, including: Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, West Africa, Gibraltar, UK, Northern Europe, Piraeus, Patras, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Tangiers, Morocco.
