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Socar Aurora Fujairah Terminal FZC (SAFT), the joint venture company between SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, Aurora Progress S.A., the Swiss based commodity trading house, and the Government of Fujairah, have announced the completion of the second phase of the 815,000 cubic metre oil products terminal in Fujairah.

The second phase has added 235,000 cubic metres (cbm) to the tanks already in operation and has been partly funded with $61m from APICORP and National Bank of Fujairah.

Ammar Kutait, CEO of SAFT commented: "We are delighted to have been able to complete this second phase four weeks ahead of schedule and well within budget. The construction teams from Fujairah National Construction & Transportation for all the civil works, Belleli Energy for tanks and pipelines, Consilium Middle East for the electrical, instrumentation and fire fighting equipment together with our project manager MUC Oil & Gas and the SAFT team have all played their part in a successful delivery of these 11 tanks. We have adopted the latest technology in the construction including having a revolutionary sealing system in place on the domed and internal floating roofs that will minimise the loss of product."

Socar Trading Vice-President and CFO, Emil Bayramli, said: "The terminal has operated very smoothly since it first opened in March 2012. This expansion will provide customers with additional services such as a road loading facility for supply into the local market. As Socar Trading we are looking forward to being able to expand the range of products we ourselves store at the terminal. The terminal benefits from a highly flexible pipeline manifold that allows each tank to hold a different product, if required. We have tanks coated so that they can hold aviation jet fuel and ethanol. We set out to make this a thoroughly flexible terminal that can cater to the changing needs of our customers. We are also fortunate to be able to utilise the new, highly efficient oil berth facilities provided by the Port of Fujairah."

"The port is making further investments as well in additional berths that will shortly allow us to accommodate vessels of up to 200,000 tonnes", added Kutait, "and with SAFT having some of the highest pumping rates in Fujairah we expect to be handling these larger ships in the future.

"Having completed the first two phases we are focussing our attention now to the construction of the third phase and we are pleased that APICORP and National Bank of Fujairah will be supporting us again in this next phase providing in total $110 million of funding."

The Socar Aurora terminal has a total planned capacity of 815,000 cbm, can handle fuel oils, gasolines, naphthas and middle distillates (diesel, gasoil & jet kerosene) and is equipped with both tank-to-tank and in-line blending facilities.

Socar Aurora is an independent terminal operator offering storage capacity to third parties. The Port of Fujairah has constructed a new multi berth facility for the receipt and loading of oil tankers. The terminal is being constructed in phases - the first two phases are now complete and provide 350,000 cbm of capacity for customers. The next phase will be 12 tanks totalling 315,000 cbm. There is then a final phase of a further 150,000 cbm.

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) was incorporated in 1993 to manage all oil and gas assets and activities on the part of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The company employs more than 80,000 people mainly in Azerbaijan, but also in different countries in Eastern and Central Europe. SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. Three production divisions, two oil refineries and one gas processing plant, an oil tanker fleet, a deep water platform fabrication yard, two trusts, one institution, and 22 subdivisions are operating as corporate entities under SOCAR.

Headquartered in Geneva, Socar Trading is the international marketing and development arm of SOCAR Group. The company markets the bulk of SOCAR crude oil export volumes from Ceyhan, trades significant volumes of third party crude and oil products and assists its parent company with international investments in logistics and downstream.

Aurora Progress S.A. is a privately owned Swiss based company with the trade, supply, transport and storage of refined petroleum products as its core activities. The group's roots go back to 1978 when Petrotex S.A. was first established; after acquiring Petrotex S.A and its subsidiaries, Aurora Progress continued to expand becoming a global trading company. Today the group is active in the trading & supplying of petroleum products, supplying bunkers in ports around the world and through Aurora Aviation S.A. is a provider of aviation services from fuelling to flight support to commercial airlines, cargo fleets and private jets and a fixed base operator at a number of airports.

Image: Socar Aurora Fujairah Terminal