January 13, 2012 [OPIS] - After much wrangling over a suitable and legitimate builder in the past three years, Broward County in Florida is back to square one for its plans to build a new 1-million-bbl oil terminal at Port Everglades.
In September 2011, Vitol abruptly canceled its $31.4 million plan to revamp and restart an oil products terminal at Port Everglades. “Petroleum is still an option, but we are also looking at warehousing, parking, terminal storage for other types of cargoes,” a port official told OPIS on Thursday. “We are trying to determine the most feasible alternative for this property,” she said.
The plan had faced several obstacles in the tender process for the terminal construction since 2009. The slow progress for this project could be attributed to the slow economic recovery and bureaucratic issues. Magellan Midstream Partners won the terminal project tender in 2010, but it decided to pull out shortly after, citing delays and changing market conditions.
Vitol won the next tender in 2011, but it also opted to cancel the project shortly because of issues with valuation and terms and conditions with the construction contract. The Port Everglades terminal would have been the second terminal for Vitol in Florida. Vitol owns and operates an existing jet supply and storage at its 2.8-million-bbl capacity terminal at Port Canaveral, which was opened for business in February 2009.
The new terminal project at Port Everglades, which would have cost $31.4 million, would have an initial storage capacity to store 945,000 bbl of jet fuel and ethanol in 10 tanks.
