Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 13 /Trend A.Badalova/
Socar Aurora Fujairah Terminal completed Phase 1 of terminal in UAE and the operation of first tanks is expected to begin within a few days, Tank Storage magazine reported with the reference to SOCAR AURORA's CEO Ammar Kutait.
According to Kutait, the commercial operation of three tanks with an overall capacity of 115,000 cubic meters will begin on 30 January.
SOCAR AURORA Fujairah Terminal is a joint venture of SOCAR the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), Aurora Progress SA, and the Government of Fujairah.
Terminal in Fujairah Port in UAE is being constructed by SOCAR Trading - subsidiary of SOCAR. SOCAR and Aurora Progress Trade House, which is based in Switzerland, reached an agreement on cooperation in the development of oil storage facilities, including providing a terminal for the storage of petroleum products in May 2010.
SOCAR Trading has already invested in the construction of a 645,000 m3 terminal in Fujairah, via SOCAR Aurora. The Fujairah Terminal consists of 20 tanks and has the capacity for handling gasoline, naphtha, middle distillates and other petroleum products.
Kutait said Phase 2 of the terminal, which is expected to take around 15 months, will up the storage capacity to 350,000 m3 with an additional nine tanks.
Phase three will begin once customer demand has been secured.
"We are already commencing discussions over the rental of phase three and we would expect to be able to make a decision on the go ahead of phase three in the first quarter of 2012, but we don't see any reason to wait," Kutait noted.
The head of Corporate Economics in Socar Trading Gunter Seymus told Trend via e-mail that Fujairah Terminal is expected to open in the next few months.
In May, 2011 Arab Petroleum Investments Corp. (APICORP) was mandated the sole arranger by Socar Aurora Fujairah Terminal for a $110 million term loan facility, consisting of two tranches, to finance the phased development of the project.
In December, 2011 APICORP and National Bank of Fujairah PSC signed an agreement on the first tranche worth $61 million to Socar Aurora Fujairah Terminal.