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Cockett Marine Oil Group has announced that it will be suspending its UK physical supply operation at the end of June 2016.

In a statement, the company said: "Cockett Marine Oil Group has announced it will consolidate its V-Marine Fuels operations in ARA. As a result of this consolidation, the UK physical supply operations will be suspended on 30th June 2016."

Karl Beeson, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: "ARA is the key growth area for bunkering in Northern Europe. Consolidating our business in ARA will enable us to focus on growth as we continue to optimise and build our physical business."

Background

Cockett began operations on the Thames in 2009. The service was expanded during late 2010 to include a sea-going barge to enable supplies at the dedicated London Queens Channel anchorages, which are within the Port of London Authority boundaries.

In May 2010, Cockett Marine Oil's owner, Grindrod Ltd, announced the acquisition of ABC Bunkeroils, a physical supplier in the ARA region carrying out deliveries in the ports of Rotterdam, Europport, Antwerp and Amsterdam and in the secondary ports of IJmuiden, Velzen, Den Helder, Dordrecht, Flushing, Terneuzen, Ghent and Zeebrugge.

In October 2011, Cockett Marine Oil signed a long-term storage deal with Oikos Ltd., which provided the company with a state-of-the-art fuel oil storage and blending facility at the Oikos Canvey Island site. The terminal is located very close to the Thames Estuary and is where Cockett has been operating a bunkers-only facility, supplying vessels transiting the English Channel.

In addition to the UK, Cockett Marine Oil began operating in northern France in July 2011, supplying in Le Havre, Antifer, Boulogne Sur Mer, Cherbourg and Dunkerque.

In 2013, following Grindrod's decision to sell a 50 percent interest in Cockett Marine Oil to energy trading firm Vitol in 2012, Cockett's physical supply operation was renamed V-Marine Fuels in a move that the company said was aimed at "bringing greater clarity and value" to its customers by absorbing the physical activities of Associated Bunkeroil Contractors (ABC) and Cockett Marine Oil Supplies Ltd (CMOS) into the same division.

V-Marine Fuels currently supplies physical bunker fuel to ships in the ports of Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Fujairah and Khor Fakkan (UAE) and Canaveral (US). In Europe, the company has been supplying in the UK, northern France, Hamburg and Bremerhaven (Germany), Netherlands and Belgium.