Tradebe invested EUR 65 million (USD 84.8m) in the construction of the terminal, in order to take advantage of the Barcelona port’s strategy to become a hub for the transport of fuel in the Mediterranean region, the municipality of Barcelona said in a statement.

The Tradebe facility, located at the Barcelona port’s Energia dock, has a storage capacity of 453,000 cu m (160m cu ft) and is equipped with 29 tanks that are able to load 24-tonne trucks for 20 minutes.

Tradebe aims to process one million tonnes of fuel at the terminal by the end of 2013 and considers to launch the construction of three similar facilities on other ports, although it will not take a definitive decision in the next two years.

After the launch of the terminal, the port of Barcelona lifted its annual fuel processing capacity to 3 million cu m from 2.5 million cu m.

The total investment in the upgrade of the Energia dock in the last four years amounted to EUR 176 million, 86% of which spent as part of private projects.