March 2, 2015 [OPIS] - Dutch tank storage operator Vopak has commissioned 400,000 cbm of new oil products storage capacity at Europoort in the Rotterdam port area in the final quarter of 2014, while deferring an LPG storage hike at Flushing (Vlissingen) into the first half of this year, its annual trade update revealed Friday.
The Europoort expansion, made up of eight 50,000-cbm tanks for middle distillates, has brought the group’s fully owned tank farm at Europoort to 3.92 million cbm.
The commissioning of an additional 36,800 cbm of pressurized storage capacity at Flushing is now slated for “Q1-Q2 2015,” versus the former Q4 2014 schedule. The project, involving six mounded bullet-type tanks for either LPG or chemical gases, is planned to grow capacity to 168,200 cbm from presently 131,400 cbm. Three new tanks are designed to hold 7,650 cbm each and the remaining tanks 4,600 cbm each, based on earlier project data.
OPIS understands there is the possibly that one tank sphere might be kept for the spot market, depending on the outcome of present talks with multiple parties.
Carry trade by oil product traders helped Vopak to bolster occupancy across its Dutch subsidiaries to 87% last year, from 83% in 2013.
“In the second half of 2014, we were able to rent out capacity on a spot basis due to the contango situation of selected oil products, and subsequently increased the occupancy to 87%,” Vopak said on its Dutch activities. Demand for storing fuel oil and fuel ethanol was “stable,” for chemicals “steady” and for biodiesel still weak.
The group operates 9.9 million cbm of storage in the Netherlands, the largest at Europoort, Amsterdam Westpoort (1.22 million cbm) and at Maasvlakte, where a 16.67% share gives it rights to 1.09 million cbm.
Whilst its operated asset basis in Asia was slightly smaller, at 9.8 million cbm, the region was Vopak’s prime growth driver last year, with 95% of owned space occupied. This compares with steady 90% utilization in the Americas and a 4% decline to 84% in its Europe-Middle East-Africa division, in which Sweden and Estonia were ailing spots.
Its Asian operations contributed 235.3 million euros ($263 million) to the group’s operating profit (EBIT) of 523.6 million euros in total ($585 million), its Dutch division earned 166 million euros and its American activities 63
million euros. Vopak’s worldwide portfolio grew last year 11% (3.3 million cbm) net to 33.8 million cbm (213 million bbl), fully including part-owned operated assets, and giving it an 11.1% share on the global liquids storage market. A further 6.2 million cbm of capacity is being developed, costing 3.3 billion euros and bringing the total to as high as 39.7 million cbm by end-2019. The tally considers disposals in the U.S., at Wilmington and Galena Park, while excluding other small assets the company ponders to shed.
Vopak predicts “a stable economy with limited growth” for Europe, a “positive” development for the Americas, with “opportunities in the U.S. Gulf Coast area;” a “competitive landscape” in some Latin American countries; and continued demand in Asia and the Middle East, “resulting in interesting opportunities to further expand our footprint.”
