February 10, 2016 [OPIS] - VTTI Energy Partners, the logistics arm of Vitol, said that its storage capacity was close to 100% utilization across the portfolio, with strong customer demand and a supportive market backdrop where it sees contango pricing in a number of oil products.
The fall in commodity prices has no direct impact on its business model and the key drivers of its business, global product demand and intra-regional flows, are continuing their long-term upward trajectory, the company said.
OPIS has reported on high distillates inventories in Europe on land as well at sea. With ullage issues amid rising inventories on land, Europe has turned to floating storage to ease the logistics bottleneck. Like distillates, the
contango crude market is facing a supply glut, increasing the need for storage.
VTTI’s adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015 was $47.6 million, compared to the fourth quarter of 2014 of $50.1 million.
VTTI’s total operating income for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015 was $28.1 million, down from $33.7 million a year ago. Net income was $6.5 million, down from $18.2 million a year ago.
VTTI Energy Partners LP is a limited partnership, formed to own, operate, develop and acquire refined petroleum product and crude oil terminaling and related energy infrastructure assets on global scale. The partnership’s assets include interests in a portfolio of six terminals that are located in energy hubs throughout the world with a combined total storage capacity of 35.5 million bbl.
The partnership generated $13.7 million of distributable cash flow for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015, compared to distributable cash flow of $12.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2014.
The operating and financial performance of VTTI for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015 was largely consistent with the performance of the partnership during the comparative period for last year and also the third quarter of 2015, the company said.
Despite a strong underlying trading performance, results were impacted by a reduction in excess throughput revenue versus the comparative period for last year, it said.
The decrease in excess throughput revenue was driven by a change in the volume distribution mix across our customer contracts, although utilization and throughput levels remained high, assisted by a positive international terminal market, the company said.
