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Vopak to build $1b China oil berth, storage tanks

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-08 10:05

Dutch oil and chemical logistics firm Royal Vopak NV and China's State Development & Investment Communication Corp plan to build a 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) commercial oil storage facility in China.

The project would make Vopak one of a few foreign companies involved in China's crude storage business dominated by the country's State-run oil firms.

The facility, to be built in China's southernmost Hainan island, will include two 300,000-ton crude terminals and two 100,000-ton berths for crude and oil products, reported by www.xinhuanet.com.

The project will include oil storage tanks on a five million square meter space, said the report, without giving details or a timeline when these facilities will be completed.

Nor did it specify the stake holding by the two firms.

The Chinese partner, a unit of State Development and Investment Group, specializes in building bridges and roads.

The facility will be situated at Yangpu area, a special economic zone which also houses the 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) Hainan refinery operated by state energy firm Sinopec Group.

Vopak already operates storage facilities, mostly chemicals, in east coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Fujian and Zhejiang, Shandong as well as city of Tianjin.

China, yet to complete building its first strategic petroleum reserve tanks to hold some 100 million barrels of crude, encourages investment in commercial storage facilities.

Vopak operates in eight countries in Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Pakistan and Vietnam. Its Asian terminal network has a total capacity of 4.9 million cu m, its website said.