The Oiltanking Group is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement to enter into a joint venture with Korea National Oil Company (29%), Glencore International (15%), SK Energy Co Ltd (11%) and GS Caltex Corporation (11%) to jointly develop a new petroleum terminal in Yeosu, South Korea. Oiltanking will hold the remaining 34%.
The secured site can accommodate a capacity of over 950,000 CBM and has adjacent water access with a natural draft of 20 meters.
The terminal will mainly serve as the trading hub for North East Asia to leverage on arbitrage opportunities with the Pacific Coasts of the Americas and to break bulk to the Japanese and Chinese markets. Additionally the facility will serve as an overflow function for the nearby South Korean refineries.
The new joint venture company, to be named Oiltanking-KNOC Yeosu Co., Ltd will start the related engineering study immediately. Commercial operation of the 1st phase of the terminal is expected to start end of 2011.
Oiltanking GmbH is a subsidiary of Marquard & Bahls AG, Germany, a leading privately owned petroleum company. Oiltanking is the second-largest independent tank storage provider for petroleum products, chemicals and gases world-wide. The company owns and operates 62 terminals in 20 countries within Europe, North and South America, Middle East, India as well as Asia. Oiltanking has an overall capacity of 13 million CBM.