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Brightoil Petroleum has begun supplying marine fuel at the port of Qingdao, Platts reports.

According to an unnamed company source, Brightoil has leased a 60,000 cubic metre storage tank at the Shandong Province port and is using its own barge to carry out bunker deliveries to clients.

The Hong Kong-listed supplier is said to have made a delivery of 380-centistoke (cst) intermediate fuel oil to a vessel in Qingdao on Tuesday, September 10.

Plans by the company to originally begin supplying in Qingdao in the second half of July were postponed. Whilst a Platts source said that this had been due to the late arrival of a cargo, other market sources were cited as saying that this had been due to delays in obtaining government approval.

In addition to Qingdao, Brightoil is also a physical supplier in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Ningbo and Zhoushan. The company was also listed as the third largest supplier by volume in Singapore last year by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and has a strong presence in Rotterdam, Tanjung Pelepas and Hong Kong.

In June, the company revealed that its wholly owned subsidiary, Brightoil Petroleum Storage (Zhoushan) Co., Ltd., had signed a contract to build the first phase of oil storage facilities on Waidiao Island in Zhoushan.

With a storage capacity of approximately 1.94 million cubic metres for fuel oil, petroleum, diesel fuel, jet fuel and chemical products, Phase I of the project is scheduled to start commercial operations in the second half of 2014.