February 3, 2016 [Business Wire] - Blueknight Energy Partners, L.P., a midstream energy company focused on providing integrated services for companies engaged in the production, distribution and marketing of crude oil, asphalt and other petroleum products, announced today that a wholly-owned subsidiary of BKEP has acquired two asphalt terminalling facilities from Axeon Specialty Products, located in Wilmington, N.C. and Dumfries, Va.
In addition, BKEP has entered into a long-term storage, throughput and handling agreement with Axeon Marketing LLC.
Axeon, or its predecessor, has been a customer of BKEP since 2009 and currently leases other BKEP-owned facilities in the region. Axeon will continue supplying various products and services to its existing customer base out of the North Carolina and Virginia facilities. The Wilmington, N.C., facility includes approximately 260,000 barrels of asphalt storage and 70,000 barrels of light fuel storage with water access. The Dumfries, Va., facility includes approximately 87,000 barrels of asphalt storage and 468,000 barrels of light fuel storage with water access along with connections to Plantation Pipeline.
The transaction will be financed by borrowings under BKEP’s existing credit facility and brings BKEP’s existing asphalt and residual oil storage network to a total of 45 terminals located in 23 states.
“We highly value our relationship with Axeon and are pleased that we can continue helping them service their customers by adding the Wilmington and Dumfries locations to our existing asphalt terminal network. In addition, we have entered into a new long term storage agreement which also includes our existing terminals in Gloucester City, N.J., and Newport News, Va.,” stated Mark Hurley, BKEP’s Chief Executive Officer. “This transaction continues to build on BKEP’s strength of operating product terminals and the new facilities will be incorporated into our coast to coast terminal network. Business will continue as usual and we expect to retain the current terminal employees. This transaction is also expected to be immediately accretive to our unitholders” added Hurley.
