IFM, Vitol and VIP Take Joint Ownership of Vitol Tank Terminals International
Vitol Investment Partnership(VIP), an investment vehicle sponsored and managed by Vitol, and IFM Investors, a global provider of investment services to institutional investors, have agreed to acquire Buckeye Partners LP’s 50% equity interest in Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI), a leading global independent provider of energy storage.On completion, VTTI will be owned 50% by IFM and 50% by Vitol and VIP. It will continue to be managed by an independent management team led by Rob Nijst, CEO.The transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent and is expected to close by year end.Rob Nijst…
Buckeye Partners Resumes Operation in Puerto Rico
Buckeye Partners has resumed full operations at its oil terminal and storage tanks in Puerto Rico two weeks after it closed the facility ahead of Hurricane Maria, the company said on Tuesday. "Buckeye has safely resumed full service of its marine, truck and tank operations at the Yabucoa, Puerto Rico Terminal Facility and is available to meet the fuel needs of the island's businesses and residents," it said in a statement. The U.S. oil storage and transportation company operates the 4.6 million barrel Yabucoa oil storage facility. Reporting by Gary McWilliams
Fuel Imports, Distribution in Puerto Rico Starts to Unclog
Shipments of gasoline and diesel into Puerto Rico have resumed after Hurricane Maria, with ports restarting operations, though there were still long fuel lines around the island on Thursday, according to traders and Thomson Reuters tracking data. Residents lined up for diesel for power generators and to fill cars with gasoline, while at least one tanker discharged at the port of San Juan as oil terminals reopened some facilities. The territory still faces logistical hurdles to distribute food, fuel and water. Critics called for more resources and a single authority to oversee relief efforts.
Caribbean Oil Terminals Prepare for Hurricane Maria
Several Caribbean oil storage terminals that temporarily closed ahead of Hurricane Irma earlier this month have started making preparations in case they have to shut again due to Hurricane Maria, which was a rare Category 5 storm on Tuesday. Shippers and traders in the Atlantic basin are struggling amid this year's very active storm season, which has seen seven hurricanes so far, four of them major hurricanes, defined as at least a Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. Hurricane Harvey hit the U.S. Gulf Coast's energy infrastructure at the end of August, halting a large portion of fuel exports to Latin America.
Statoil's Bahamas Oil Terminal to Shut ahead of Irma
Norway's state-run oil company Statoil began making preparations on Thursday to shut its South Riding Point storage and transshipment terminal in the Bahamas ahead of Hurricane Irma, traders close to the facility told Reuters. South Riding Point in Grand Bahama has the capacity to store up to 6.75 million barrels of oil. A neighboring terminal in the Bahamas, Buckeye Partners' BORCO, was also expected to halt all operations on Thursday, the company said. (Reporting by Marianna Parraga)
Irma forces Bahamas Borco Terminal to Close
Buckeye Partners LP's Bahamas terminal, also known as Borco, has been closed for vessel traffic and will shut all operations by the end of the day due to Hurricane Irma, a source familiar with operations said on Thursday. That terminal, located in Freeport, on Grand Bahama Island, has more than 26 million barrels of storage capacity for crude, fuel oil, gasoline and other products. Hurricane Irma has already killed several people after hammering the Caribbean as a category 5 storm, with winds up to 180 mph (285 km/h). It was most recently located off the northern coast of Dominican Republic…
Buckeye Partners Aims to Restart Corpus Christi Facility by Tuesday
U.S. oil terminal operator Buckeye Partners LP said on Monday it was working to fully restart operations at its oil processing facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, by early Tuesday afternoon. Based on the latest assessment of equipment, the company is working to fully restart operations in the next 24 hours, a spokesman told Reuters in an email. All employees have been safely accounted for and a regular work schedule has resumed at the Corpus Christi processing and marine terminal facilities, he said. The company said on Sunday its facilities in Corpus Christi had not suffered major damage due to Tropical Storm Harvey.
PA Pipeline Spat Could Upend International Oil Flows
Refiners from the Midwest United States are fighting for access to a vital Pennsylvania pipeline – a move that could cripple their East Coast competitors and redraw the map for international flows of crude and fuel into coveted coastal markets. The regulatory dispute centers on a proposal by pipeline operator Buckeye Partners’ to that state's Public Utilities Commission. The plan would reverse the flow of fuels on a section of Buckeye’s 350-mile Laurel Pipeline, which currently flows from the East Coast to Pittsburgh. Because pipelines only flow in one direction…
VTTI Launches Adriatic Oil Product Storage
Global oil storage company VTTI launched a new terminal in Croatia on Monday to target oil product demand in the Adriatic in advance of what the company says is substantial further expansion in Europe. The storage company announced its acquisition of a newly opened Adriatic Tank Terminal in Ploce, a deepwater port on the Croatian coast, with 50,000 cubic metres of petroleum products storage, along with partner Energia Naturalis Holding. It plans to more than quadruple storage capacity with an additional 200,000 cubic metres and open liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage within two years through a projected 150 million euro ($164 million) investment.
PDVSA Woes Deepen as Caribbean Debt Soars
Unpaid debts and broken promises are making Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA an outcast in several Caribbean countries where it had been a guest of honor. The state-run company's crumbling finances are causing operational disruptions across one of its most essential regions, according to internal company documents, six sources with knowledge of its operations, and Thomson Reuters vessel-tracking data. Business partners in the island nations of Curacao, Bonaire, Jamaica and the Bahamas are turning away from the firm as debts pile up to tugboat operators, ship brokers, maritime agencies and terminal owners, the sources and documents show.
Buckeye to Acquire 50% of VTTI Marine Terminal
Buckeye Partners LP, which operates pipelines and other transportation and storage assets for liquid petroleum products, said it bought a 50 percent stake in the marine terminal company VTTI BV for $1.15 billion. VTTI is a unit of Vitol Group. The deal is expected to close in early January 2017. VTTI will be 50% indirectly owned by Buckeye and 50% indirectly owned by Vitol. It is intended that the joint shareholding of Buckeye and Vitol will add greater strategic value to VTTI and will further strengthen VTTI's position as a leading independent provider of energy storage solutions.
Shortage of Caribbean Storage Forces Some Crude Sales at Loss
A saturated oil storage network in the Caribbean is forcing some South American and African producers to keep selling crude at prices that do not cover production costs, brokers and sources told Reuters. Low price environments typically motivate producing and trading companies to store more crude while waiting for a better time to sell, but a lack of available storage tanks in the Caribbean is leaving them with few options. "It's a death spiral, a race to the bottom," an oil tank broker said on condition of anonymity, explaining how oil firms are selling at any price because storage facilities are even fuller now than in the last quarter of 2015.
BTG Pactual's Condensate Export Deal to End Soon
Press release - BTG Pactual's contract to export condensate from the northeastern United States is set to expire soon, three trade sources said on Monday, just as the Brazilian bank reels from the arrest and departure of its chief executive officer. The deal by the commodities trading arm of the bank to lift condensate from a Buckeye Partners' terminal in New Jersey opened a new outlet for U.S. exports of the very light oil, which until then had been focused along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The initial contract was only for three months, the sources said. It is not clear if it might be renewed. U.S.
Traders Scramble for Caribbean Crude Storage
Demand for crude storage in the Caribbean, one of the world's most important oil hubs, is rising as producers and traders try to ride out the worst price crash in six years by holding onto more barrels or making blends that can be sold for premiums. The last time tanks in the logistically-important islands were this full, during the price collapse of 2009, companies started leasing vessels to use as floating storage. That is not yet happening now, but the only way to get tank space at the moment is to sublease it, said one tank broker with decades of experience.
Buckeye Pipeline Quietly Makes Key Acquisition
Houston-based logistic firm Buckeye Partners has spent more than $3.5 billion buying assets since 2010, transforming itself from a quiet regional pipeline utility into an emerging energy powerhouse. But the acquisition that may best symbolize its evolution is one the company didn't tout to investors this summer: a Washington lobbyist. After spending most of the past century pumping fuel from one place to another, the 128-year-old company has become a key player in the import and export of North American oil, with an unrivalled network of East Coast and Caribbean fuel depots and an expanding business loading crude oil from trains to tankers.
Buckeye Buys Trafigura's Texas Assets
Oil logistics specialist Buckeye Partners LP will pay $860 million for control of Trafigura's prized oil facilities in the Texas shale hub amid expectations Washington will relax its crude oil export ban. U.S. firm Buckeye will buy 80 percent of the global commodities trader's South Stream assets which include a deep-water tanker loading terminal in Corpus Christi, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage and a small refining unit known as a condensate splitter. Trafigura will hold on to the remaining 20 percent in the Corpus Christi facility, described in Trafigura's 2013 annual report as "one of the company's most important strategic assets ...
Refiners Seek Jones Act Workarounds as Crude Export Debate Heats Up
As the first U.S. oil condensate exports head to Asia from the Gulf Coast, crude producers and refiners are exploring ways to get around a century-old law that makes it three times more expensive to ship by water between U.S. ports than to sail to a foreign port. The Jones Act, originally passed to protect the U.S. maritime industry, restricts passage between U.S. ports to ships that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed. If oil exports pick up pace while the Jones Act is left in place, U.S. crudes discount to Brent will likely narrow from its $8 average through 2014…
Marathon Traders Gain E.Coast foothold with Hess Deal
Marathon Petroleum Corp is poised to expand its growing Midwest and Gulf Coast fuel trading operation to the East Coast with Thursday's deal to buy Hess Corp's retail network and transport contracts. The purchase will give Marathon control of Hess's gasoline stations and access to pipelines, including the capacity to ship approximately 40,000 barrels per day on the sought-after Colonial Pipeline from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast, according to the companies. The $2.9 billion deal is expected to close late in the third quarter. That likely means opening up new trading opportunities.
Bahamas - A Key Source For U.S. Gasoline
A massive oil storage facility in the Bahamas may offer nimble gasoline traders a new way to profit by shipping fuel in foreign ships from the oversupplied U.S. Gulf Coast to the gasoline-thirsty East Coast following a recent U.S. Customs ruling. The March 6 judgment in favor of Buckeye Partners LP , which owns the Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO) oil storage hub, allows traders to use lower-cost foreign ships to transport fuels between the Gulf and East Coast via BORCO without violating a near-century old law called the Jones Act.
