FTZ to ramp up oil products storage capacity by 2020

Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone is expecting its oil products storage capacity to surpass 40 million cubic meters by 2020, an official said on Monday.

"The FTZ has been pushing forward the construction of an international oil base in the zone, and the first phase of it, with 20 million metric tons of refining capacity, will start testing by the end of this year," said Xia Wenzhong, deputy head of Zhejiang Pilot FTZ. "Currently the storage capacity has reached 22.7 million cubic meters, one of the biggest of its kind in the country, and we plan to increase it to 40 million cubic meters by 2020."

The FTZ is looking to realize in excess of 80 billion yuan ($11.52 billion) from total oil products trade with the volume exceeding 20 million tons by the end of this year. The oil products trading scale is expected to reach 300 billion yuan by 2020.

In the first half of 2018, the FTZ has welcomed 697 oil product companies, bringing over 24.5 billion yuan in registered capital.

Xia said the first phase of the liquefied natural gas receiving station with a capacity of three million tons being set up by new energy group ENN has been put into operation.

Zhang Yesheng, CEO of ENN, said the company aims to increase the receiving, storage, transition and filling capacity in Zhoushan in the future. The company also expected to connect to the LNG station in Ningbo, Yangshan, Wenzhou and Rudong to create a maritime path for LNG that could meet demand in the Yangtze River Delta and East China.

Construction of a number of infrastructure, including an aviation industrial park and waterway transportation center in Zhoushan, are also in progress.

Zhejiang FTZ has also innovated in international maritime services. For example, the bonded fuel policy allows oil companies to provide bonded fuel to international cargo outside Zhoushan without requiring transition or customs clearance process.

According to a previous report by China News.com, Sinopec Zhejiang Zhoushan Petroleum Co Ltd was the first company to benefit from such a policy.

Zhang Ji, general manager of the bonded fuel business department of the company, said since the policy came into force, the fuel no longer needs to go through the customs clearance process.

"The process is much simpler," Zhang said. "It has also helped reduce the loss of fuel during transportation and the cost for storage and logistics."

Last year the company supplied 833,000 tons of bonded oil.