October 24, 2013 [OPIS] - Odfjell plans to bring into service its second bulk liquids terminal in the U.S. located in the Port of Charleston, S.C., at the end of December this year. The company's first such terminal is in Houston, Texas, and has been in service for some 30 years.
“We will be ready to receive product Dec. 31st 2013,” at the Charleston terminal, a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
Construction on the Odfjell Terminals (Charleston) facility began in April 2012, and Phase 1 work will conclude in December this year, an Odfjell spokeswoman said.
The terminal – known as OTC – will handle imports, exports, storage and distribution of bulk liquid chemicals, petroleum products and vegetable oils, and can receive vessels with up to 80,000 mt dwt.
“We will basically consider handling anything that is liquid at normal atmospheric pressure and typical ambient temperatures (except highly toxic) and can in our Phase 1 development handle some solidifying substances,” she added.
For now, natural gas liquids (NGL) will not be part of the mix that OTC would handle, she said. However, she added that through expansions in the medium term, the terminal could accommodate low pressure gases. NGLs would include ethane, propane, butanes and natural gasolines.
Phase 1 development at the Charleston terminal does not include cooling systems that would be required to keep most types of NGLs in liquid form, she noted.
Future development of the facility could accommodate these types of products if there was committed client interest, she said.
Phase 1 of this project would host some 500,000 barrels of storage capacity and further phases will double this capacity on the current plot, she said.
Odfjell’s recently announced purchase of neighboring Chem-Marine’s facility would afford it greater room for substantially more expansion.
On Aug. 6, Odfjell announced that it would be purchasing Chem-Marine Corp. which has a long-term land lease for a 25.3-acre site that is adjacent to the OTC property. The deal was valued at $10 million.
As it stands, the Odfjell Charleston terminal would be accessible for sea-going tankers, barges, road tank trucks, iso-tanks, pipelines and rail tank cars that are part of the CSX and Norfolk Southern railroad networks. It would offer direct transfer from railcars to ships or barges at rates up to 3,500 barrels per hour.
Odfjell has plans for up to 45 tanks with a total capacity of about 1 million barrels for the Charleston terminal. Tank sizes, based on customer specific requirements, would vary from 4,000 to 100,000 barrels.
The terminal is also equipped to effect transfers of a wide range of chemicals from truck, flexi and iso-tainer direct to railcar and vice-versa as well as direct railcar-ship transfers.
The spokeswoman declined to provide an estimate for the cost of the entire project.
Odfjell Terminals is owned by Odfjell SE (51%) and Lindsay Goldberg (49%).
