SOHAR Takes Aim at Fujairah's Bunker Business with $600 Million Terminal Deal with Singapore's Trescorp

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday September 25, 2017

In a bid to capture some of Fujairah's bunker business, the Sohar Port and Freezone (SOHAR) today announced it has signed a $600 million deal with Singapore-based trader Trescorp Alliance Pte (Trescorp) for the development of a new 45-hectare terminal with bunker storage at the Omani port.

SOHAR says it expects significant growth in petroleum trading in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, as well as growing demand for bunker services.

The deal will see the initial development of 600,000 cubic metres (cbm) of bunker storage capacity, which is slated to begin operation by 2020.

Trescorp then intends to triple the storage facility's capacity to 1.8 million cbm within a year, said SOHAR CEO Mark Geilenkirchen.

"What we were seeing was vessels coming to Sohar and then going to Fujairah for bunkering. We want to stop that."

Fujairah is one of the world's biggest bunker markets by volume.

Sohar Port expects to serve approximately 3,000 vessels in 2017 - up from around 2,600 last year - and projects traffic to grow by 30 percent in 2018.

Trescorp chairman, Hamood Al Hashmi, said regional demand growth is expected to be "far greater" than current available storage capacity.

By 2020, Sohar is expected to have 3.2 million cbm in total storage, including the Trescorp project.

In April, Sohar told Ship & Bunker that was looking to upgrade and grow its bunker services, having issued a tender to seek interested parties to assist with the bunkering expansion.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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