France-based oil giant Total has signed a deal to store fuel oil at the fuel oil and bunker hub of the Middle East, The United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, reports say.
Totsa, Total’s international trading arm, has leased between 75,000-100,000 m³ of storage capacity.
It is speculated Total has been planning to expand its fuel oil business into East Africa and Pakistan, where demand for electricity from oil fired power stations has been growing.
The agreement is reported to have begun at the end of Q2.
This move adds to the growing storage trend at the port. Vopak Horizon Fujairah last year added 380,000 m³ of capacity to its Fujairah terminal and announced that it had plans to expand capacity 2.7 million m³.
In addition, Chemoil’s joint venture 600,000 m³ storage facility is expected to be fully operational by 2011.