Rob Nijst, chief executive of Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI), told Reuters on Tuesday the company was confident it could increase its global storage capacity to 8-10 million cubic metres over the next five years.

It now has a global capacity of around 6 mcm in 11 petroleum product terminals worldwide.

“We are pretty ambitious looking into Africa. We recently acquired a company in Kenya (and) we are looking into Egypt as we speak,” Nijst said on the sidelines of a ground-breaking ceremony for a VTTI storage and distribution facility on the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

VTTI is a 50/50 venture between Vitol, the world’s largest oil trader, and Malaysian shipping company MISC Bhd, the shipping arm of state oil firm Petronas.

VTTI has raised 500 million euros ($667.3 million) to fund expansion projects in Malaysia, Kenya and in Cyprus since Vitol clinched a deal to sell a 50 percent stake to MISC last September.

“We have been looking in Asia but so far, with the exception of our Malaysia project, nothing has really come to the surface,” Nijst said.

“We are still very interested in other parts of the Mediterranean … maybe the western, mid-western part of the Mediterranean, and we are still under-developed in the United States,” he said.

“We are keen, if we can find a good project in the U.S., we would follow that.” VTTI has one storage facility in Florida.

The Cypriot facility in the southern area of Vassiliko will have an initial capacity of 340,000 cubic metres, which will be increased to 550,000 cubic metres in the second phase of the project.

“The new terminal will allow Cyprus to establish itself as a major trading hub for the import and export of products,” Nijst said.

The combined investment in both phases of the Cypriot project will exceed 200 million euros. The first phase will be completed by the end of 2012.