December 12, 2011 [Platts] -UAE-based Gulf Petrochem plans to spend $250 million on the construction of new storage terminals and the purchase of new ships over the next three years, company CEO Sanjeev Sisaudia said Monday.
The investment includes construction of a 412,000 cubic meter storage terminal in Fujairah, UAE, a 218,000 cu m storage terminal in Pipavav, India, and a 150,000 cu m storage terminal in Port Klang, Malaysia, he said.
Construction of the terminals in Fujairah and Pipavav has begun, and the company is in the process of acquiring land at Port Klang, Sisaudia said.
The Fujairah terminal is due for completion by mid-2012 and the Pipavav terminal by end-2012, Sisaudia said.
The company has traded in crude products to date but plans to enter the petrochemicals sector in future, although it has no specific stream of products in mind, he said.
“We are keeping all our options open and are looking into new investment opportunities,” Sisaudia said. “We expect the company to touch an annual turnover of $1 billion by 2014 from about $500 million now.”
The company currently operates a 500 mt/day refinery at the Hamriyah Free Zone in the UAE and trades in oil products in the Middle East and India. Construction of two new 12 inch pipelines from the refinery to the port of Hamriyah will expand its capacity for receiving and loading vessels with capacity of 3,500 mt currently to vessels of up to 20,000 mt, Sisaudia said. Construction of the two pipelines is due for completion by end December.
The company is also in the process of acquiring three new vessels with capacities of 4,000 mt, 6,900 mt and 7,200 mt, he said.
