January 30, 2022 [Hellenic Shipping News] – Fujairah Oil Terminal, the largest independent storage terminal at the Port of Fujairah by throughput, has delayed the expected startup of its $45 million project to connect its crude oil storage tanks to the port’s VLCC loading facility to Q2 from Q1 2023.

The amount of crude and oil products moving through its pipeline to storage tanks is still expected to be the highest in several years in 2023, Dave Noakes, senior managing director at Prostar Capital, which owns 40% of FOT, told S&P Global Commodity Insights in a Jan.

23 interview. The VLCC connection is “broadly on time” though it will be delayed from the original Q1 target to Q2 due to “supply chain issues,” he said.

Throughput was “just under” 20 million mt in 2022, down from 20 million mt in 2021, but was still “broadly what we were expecting,” he said.

The expected increase in throughput this year is due to “forward looking projections” that he declined to elaborate on. FOT is ready to expand its storage capacity of 1.2 million cubic meters, including 10 crude tanks able to store 580,000 cubic meters, subject to customer demand, he said.

The $45 million project to connect to the port’s VLCC loading facility is via the Matrix Manifold 2 to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s ADCOP pipeline.

The project will add four pipelines of 3 km each — two for crude, one for black products and one for clean — and associated pumping capacity. The project is expected to boost Murban exports from Fujairah as shippers are able to load crude directly onto VLCC vessels, reducing transportation costs, he said.

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