Americas News
Aegean Buys OW Bunker's California Fuel Stock in Possible West Coast Expansion Move
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. [NYSE: ANW] (Aegean) has bought up the bunkers recently offered up for auction in Los Angeles by O.W. Bunker North America, according to a number of reports Monday by both media and market sources.
According to sources, Aegean bought up the entire stock of approximately 30,000 metric tonnes (mt) of fuel in an auction last week.
Sources indicated that Aegean has also secured an agreement with Vopak Terminal Los Angeles Inc. to keep the product in California, leading to speculation it was poised to expand its operations onto the US West Coast.
Aegean president Nikolas Tavlarios recently said it was looking to fill some of the void left by the exit of OW Bunker, and that it was "looking at some of the markets and some of the people too."
Last November Aegean expanded its reach to the U.S. East Coast by buying the bunkering business of Hess Corporation [NYSE:HES] (Hess), and while it has a presence in Vancouver, Canada, is not currently active on the US West Coast.
OW Bunker launched a physical bunker supply division in its U.S. operation the proceeding year, after former Noble Bunkering and Chemoil executives Adrian Tolson and Keith Richardson joined OW Bunker in October 2012.
It expanded its physical operation to Los Angeles and Long Beach earlier this year, with Tolson saying next year it could be a key market for distillate sales thanks to the new Emissions Control Area (ECA) rules coming into force from January 1, 2015.
Neither company has yet to make an official comment on the matter.
OW Bunker filed for bankruptcy in Denmark in early November, with its U.S. units following suit the following week.
