January 12, 2017 [OPIS] - French Rubis has agreed to buy out its partner in the parity venture Delta Rubis Petrol, opening the way to steer expansion plans for bulk liquids storage in the eastern Mediterranean region as sole owner, subject to anti-trust approval, the logistics and distribution company said in a recent statement.
The proposed takeover of a 50% stake in the independent storage provider would give the group full control of a 650,000-cbm tank storage facility at Ceyhan, on the southeast coast of Turkey. It plans to add another 120,000 cbm to speed up loadings for large vessels.
Located in the Bay of Iskenderun, the port marks the landing point for the Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline from the Caspian Sea and for the Kirkuk-Ceyhan line from war-torn northern Iraq.
The existing facility is made up of 41 tanks for white and black products as well as crude oil and a 2.3-km long six-berth jetty, which can receive vessels up to 230,000 dwt.
“Eventually, the ownership control will provide Rubis with full autonomy to combine management and operational leverage, including the construction of an additional 120,000-cbm storage capacity aim[ed] at optimizing large vessels loading from the new jetty facility,” the company said in early January.
In 2016, Delta Rubis Petrol generated rental revenues of $31 million, yielding an EBITDA of an estimated $20 million, the Paris-based co-owner said.
The Mediterranean storage firm had a stint in the LPG business in the mid-1990s, when it had built a 65,000-cbm LPG terminal, distributed LPG in bulk and bottles in Turkey and ran an LPG semi-trailer fleet. The division was later sold to a BP-Mobil joint venture, according to a company profile.
