A new benchmark in the independent terminaling industry Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals
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omplementing Sohar Port’s flourishing refining and petrochemicals cluster is a bulk liquid storage terminal whose robust growth over the past several years has largely mirrored the industrial port’s stellar development as a logistics hub. Launching operations in August 2008, the central tank terminal of Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals & Co. LLC (OOTO) is today one of the principal nerve centres of the port’s increasingly diverse logistics business.
“We have grown into one of the biggest terminals in the region, having developed a very good niche for ourselves at Sohar Port,” says Mr. Morten Albriktsen, CEO, Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals. “Thanks to Sohar’s very strategic location, our tank farm facilities are very attractive to a growing number of international majors trading in Clean Petroleum Products (CPP), as well as in fine chemicals. In fact, Oiltanking Odfjell now caters to a healthy mix of captive clients at the port and a growing portfolio of multinational traders.” Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals & Co LLC is a joint venture of Oiltanking Odfjell Oman BV (70 per cent), the state-owned energy and strategic investment vehicle Oman Oil Company (25 per cent), and a private investment company (5 per cent). Oiltanking Odfjell Oman is itself a partnership of two of the world’s biggest names in the bulk liquid transportation and terminaling industry. Together, the two international partners along with their Omani investors have underpinned the joint venture’s rapid growth over the past four years. In the last year, prompted by strong demand growth, the company added 425,000 cubic metres of new capacity. The expansion boosting the overall capacity of the tank farm to a world-class 1.267 million cubic metres, dedicated primarily to the storage of clean petroleum products. Clean petroleum product volumes handled at the terminal have soared since the commissioning of the new capacity, the CEO said. Further, in a significant effort to diversify its terminaling services, the joint venture added 27,300 cubic metres of new capacity earmarked primarily for the storage of chemical products. Ten new tanks, designed to hold chemical products, such as solvents, glycols, iso-cyanates and acrylic esters, were commissioned recently. “With this roughly $25 million investment in new chemical
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storage capacity, Oman Oiltanking Odfjell has effectively ventured into new territory,” said Mr. Albriktsen. “Having mainly focused on the storage of clean petroleum products (CPP) for the local industry, we are now getting into chemical storage for third parties. This opens new markets for us and positions Sohar as a transit hub not only for the local business, but also for imports and exports by independent traders catering to the greater GCC region. Thus, having already established ourselves as a hub for CPP traders, we are now also becoming more of a hub for fine chemicals,” he added. Oman Oiltanking Odfjell’s robust appeal – all of its CPP storage capacity is already pledged under long-term commitments – is underpinned foremost by its strategic location just outside the Hormuz Strait, says the CEO. This vantage position allows the terminal to support trade and cargo flows within the Middle East region as well as flows from the Gulf to other continents and regions. Also buttressing its appeal is a combination of factors: multiple deepwater berths, state-of-the-art line system, and high-pressure pump facilities that come with the assurance of a rapid and efficient