Mercuria Will Continue to Develop its Minerva Bunkers Business

Mercuria says it will continue to develop its Minerva Bunkers business

Mercuria will continue to develop its Minerva Bunkers business despite winding up its physical bunker supply operation in West Africa and restructuring its marine fuels trading operation, a source at Mecuria has told Ship & Bunker.

As previously reported, sources told Ship & Bunker last week that Minerva Bunkers has ceased its WAF physical operation, and was rumoured to be closing its offices in Seoul and Piraeus.

This has now been confirmed by Mercuria, and while the company declined to comment further on the circumstances surrounding its exit from WAF, future physical bunker supply operations could still be on the cards.

"We are constantly looking for new opportunities, so we would not rule out another physical supply operation for Minerva Bunkers in the future," a source at the company told Ship & Bunker.

With regard to the closing of its offices, the source told Ship & Bunker that the move was about restructuring to ensure they operate as efficiently as possible.

"We made some decisions about where we operate. We centralized our European operations in Las Palmas and our Asian operations in Japan and Singapore," they said.

"We remain focused on the development of our bunker business as we move into 2017 and look forward to recruiting additional bunker professionals throughout our global operations who will help to grow our business. We will likely continue to make adjustments that provide the greatest value to our customers."

The restructuring will likely see the exit of around eight to ten individuals, and the hiring of around six more, the source added.