While the tanks are flexible to store up to 16,400 cbm (9,850 mt) of butane, propane storage is limited to 9,240 cbm (5,544 mt) of the spheres, commercial manager Frank Schreurs said.

The facility can absorb intakes at a pump rate of 250 cbm/hour and handle off-takes at a speed of 400 cbm/hour, based on company data.

The storage offer, which reflects the site’s entire LPG storage capability, comes as a contract with the existing sole user has expired. The operator is presently carrying out inspections and is planning minor upgrade works until spring next year.

The lease price could be based on a fixed fee or on a per-ton-throughput basis, said the manager, who is looking for one or more long-term customers.

The facility forms part of ConocoPhillips’ former 260,000-b/d Wilhelmshaven refinery, tank farm and sea terminal complex, which Hestya Energy bought in 2011 and turned into a 1.22 million cbm (7.7 million bbl) crude and oil products storage facility.

The terminal’s coastal jetty can receive LPG carriers with a deadweight of up to 11,000 dwt, and a draft of up to 6.5 meters and a length-overall (LOA) of between 50-135 meters, while the two-berth island jetty is capable of handling oil tankers up to 250,000 dwt and with a draft no greater than 17.5 meters. Besides seagoing vessels, the facility can also handle LPG block-trains and trucks.

Although Hestya Energy of Amsterdam — owned by investment firms Riverstone and AtlasInvest — has no immediate plans to expand the site’s storage capacity within the existing range spanning the oil barrel, it considers expansion to chemical wholesale bulk products if demand arises, Schreurs said.

The site, located in the outer area of Wilhelmshaven deep-water port, can also store 490,000 cbm of distillates, 300,000 cbm of jet fuel, 234,000 cbm of gasoline and 200,000 cbm of fuel oil.

The North Sea port on the western side of the Jade Bay is also the base of North-West Oil Pipeline (NWO), which operates a 1,200 jetty and a 1.6 million-cbm tank farm.