This will further strengthen the company’s position as market leader. During the presentation of the financial results for the first quarter of 2011, Vopak announced that there was little leeway in terms of increasing the utilization of the current capacity or improving efficiency. The main way to get better  results was to increase the capacity. 

Half a million
At the Europoort terminal, one of the largest in the world for mineral oil products, with a capacity of 3.3 million m3, four tanks with a joint capacity of 160,000 m3 are under construction. At the Maasvlakte Oil Terminal (MOT), 360,000 m3 of capacity is reaching completion. Although Vopak is one of the six shareholders in the MOT, the new capacity will be completely at its disposal.

Change of mood
With the current 4.5 million m3 of storage capacity  in 39 tanks, each containing 112.000 m3, the MOT was already thought to be the world’s biggest reception terminal for crude oil. Originally, two more of these massive terminals were planned for the Maasvlakte. Due to the oil crises, the mood changed from unbridled optimism to a certain pessimism; there would never be a need for extra capacity again. After close on forty years, the mood changed again to realistic optimism. Less North Sea oil is being shipped in and increasing volumes of crude oil are being imported from further afield (Russia, Middle East, Central Asia via Turkey, Africa). The tankers used for this purpose are much larger than the shuttle vessels used for the North Sea. In addition, more blending needs to be done than with the ‘ideal’ North Sea oil, due to the widely varying quality. Added to this, there is an emerging need for handling and storage capacity for Russian crude oil destined for other continents. From Russia they use relatively small ships (draught restrictions in Baltic). Over long distances, particularly to Asia, it is cheaper to use very large tankers. Rotterdam is the ideal hub for this. The planned Tankterminal Europoort West can satisfy this need.