Americas News
Buckeye Enjoys Strong Performance at Marine Terminals
Buckeye Partners, L.P. (Buckeye) has reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2015, saying strong business at its marine terminals helped the company report an expansion in income.
"Our Global Marine Terminals and Merchant Services segments drove substantial incremental contributions compared to last year," said Clark C. Smith, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
"We were able to capitalize on strong demand in the market to increase utilization of our storage assets at higher contracted rates."
Income from continuing operations in the fourth quarter rose to $135.1 million, up from $64 million in the fourth quarter of 2014.
For 2015, Buckeye reported income from continuing operations of $438.4 million compared to income from continuing operations for 2014 of $334.5 million.
"Buckeye's outstanding fourth quarter and full year financial results further demonstrate the benefits of our diversification strategy and the strength of our position in the market," said Smith.
Buckeye attributed some of the success to a previously commissioned refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility that generated cash flows under long-term, take-or-pay agreements with Trafigura Trading LLC.
"With the completion of our South Texas project and the continued strength across our asset portfolio, we are positioned to see significant improvement in both our annual distribution coverage and leverage through 2016," stated Smith.
"This strong financial position gives us the confidence to continue to grow the quarterly distribution [rate]," he says.
In May of 2015 Ship & Bunker reported that Buckeye was winding down its Caribbean bunker operations.
