“I’m estimating the expansions at our Fujairah, Saudi Arabia and some of our African terminals will cost about $370 million overall. Horizon’s share would be more than 45 per cent,” Yusr H. Sultan told Gulf News in a telephone interview. Its greenfield Malta project will cost more than $350 million.
The expansion will add 20 per cent, or a million cubic metres, to the terminalling firm’s operations and is expected to begin in 2012-2013. Horizon last month said it will add 600,000 cubic metres of storage for black and clean products in Malta, at the crossroads of some of the world’s busiest shipping routes that carry more than 120 million tonnes of oil products.
A new terminal in Tangiers, Morocco, is also expected to be commissioned later this year, adding a further 20 per cent to Horizon’s portfolio. Horizon operates more than 5 million cubic metres of storage in five countries.
“Primarily, we are an independent petroleum storage company covering the Middle East, Far East and parts of Africa. We have moved westwards by investing in Morocco, near the Straits of Gibraltar,” the chief executive said.
“We have also announced our intentions of investing in Malta. These markets are viewed by us as emerging and potential growth markets.”
Since its incorporation in 2003 as a limited-liability company in the Bahamas, Horizon has invested predominantly in joint ventures in which it tends to be the majority shareholder.
“Our investment in asset-creation so far would probably be more than $1.2 billion,” Sultan said. “With our new investments and expansions, the value is expected to rise to $2 billion.”
The Malta project includes a breakwater and port infrastructure, one jetty for very large crude carriers and two for vessels up to 120,000 deadweight tonnes. The project cost is more than $350 million, Sultan said.
The expansions will come online in 2013, he said. “In the specific areas where we are expanding there tends to be a shortage of product storage.
The specific areas where we are expanding are predominantly trading hubs or difficult markets to enter and this should help us maintain some reasonably healthy margins,” Sultan said.
