The BORCO terminal provides a strategic storage space in the Caribbean for
oil players who trade in the Americas.
First Reserve and Vopak bought BORCO for about $900 million from Venezuela’s
PDVSA in May 2008. The new owners then pledged to expand the existing
operational capacity in the near term.
A week ago, three large smoke stacks at BORCO were demolished to clear the
way for more expansion work as well as for environmental reasons.
The current operating capacity at BORCO is pegged at 14 million bbl, with
the remaining 6 million bbl rendered unusable due to corrosion, Sikorski said.
The bulk of the total operational capacity or more than 10 million bbl is
used for residual fuel storage and the balance is used for crude.
First Reserve had said last year that the additional storage space would
cater to the clean products storage demand, but Sikorski said on Monday that
there are no concrete plans yet on whether these new tanks would be designated
for dirty or clean products.
“It will depend on the storage demand of clean products,” he said.
Industry sources said that the new tanks are likely to be used for storing
crude and fuel oil, judging by the stronger storage demand for dirty products.
Sikorski also said that First Reserve will not stop at bringing BORCO back
up to its original storage capacity.
“There will be more expansions for BORCO in the future,” he said, but
declined to provide more details.
Vopak, the world’s largest independent storage tank terminal operator, holds
a 20% equity share at BORCO. It is also the operator of BORCO.