Oil Industry Expands in Fujairah

As oil topped the $100 per barrel mark, the Singapore-listed company Chemoil Energy announced that it will launch its marine fuel business in Fujairah this month (March) and will more than double the storage capacity within two years.

The Reuters article said:
“The foray into Fujairah will put it in direct competition with Vitol, which will soon start trading in a region dominated by a small group of Arab players and had already seen several large foreign firms fail in their attempts to cement a foothold in the market.”

Company chairman, Robert Bandy spoke of the attractiveness of the Fujairah location when saying:

“I think if you run the numbers, Fujairah is the largest fuel oil port in the world now... it’s outside the Strait of Hormuz, every oil tanker loading crude oil out of the Middle East will entertain that as a stopping point for fuel.” Bandy said.

Fujairah handles about 100 vessels at any given time for various marine services including re-fuelling, port data show.

Source: Luke Pachymuthu and Yaw Yan Chong, Chemoil Asia, Mideast Expansion on Track, Reuters UK, 27 February 2008.

Image: Oil Pump