PetroChina will lease over 5 million barrels of dirty storage space at the Statia terminal, in the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean, trading sources said. The terminal is owned and operated by Nustar.
The move will increase PetroChina’s dirty storage capacity at Statia to 6 million barrels by early 2010. Statia is the biggest bunker fuel or fuel oil storage terminal in the Caribbean.
The previous tenant, Saudi Aramco, did not renew at Statia when its lease expired at the end of last year.
Apart from Statia, PetroChina has a total of 2.5 million barrels of dirty and clean storage space at BORCO in the Bahamas. These tanks are used for storing fuel oil, jet fuel and gasoline.
The Chinese firm may also have some storage space of about 500,000 barrels at St. Lucia, well-placed sources say.
PetroChina has a close relationship with Venezuela for lifting fuel oil and crude oil for delivery mostly to Asia.
The growing emphasis on regional trade in the Americas has seen PetroChina load fuel oil onboard oil tankers at Statia terminal, and crude and fuel oil at BORCO.
There have also been talks that the Chinese firm may buy an oil refinery in the US to further reinforce its trading presence in North and South Americas.
PetroChina had earlier in 2009 opened a trading office and hired crude, dirty and clean products traders in Houston, and maintains its US headquarter office in New Jersey.