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Wed 26 Nov 2014, 21:15 GMT

Endofa pulls plug on Oleum joint venture


Bunker firm says it has 'returned to its core business' after ending its joint venture with Dan-Bunkering.

Endofa DMCC has announced that it has concluded its joint venture, Oleum DWC-LLC, which it established with A/S Dan-Bunkering Ltd towards the end of last year.

The Dubai-based business was officially launched in December 2013 as a physical supplier of intermediate fuel oil (IFO) and marine gas oil (MGO) off the West African coastline. The company's main supply locations were the offshore area between Abidjan and Lagos, and from Nigeria to Walvis Bay.

"Endofa has returned to its core business after concluding its joint venture, Oleum, for which it operated up to seven tankers in WAF [West Africa]," Endofa said in an emailed statement.

"The joint venture was an ambitious attempt to bring a new, broad-appeal bunker supplier into WAF [West Africa]," said Kenn Soendergaard, partner at Endofa. "Operation Oleum opened many doors, most of which we now consider part of our core business."

In May 2014, Oleum was the first bunker supplier in West Africa to perform bunker transfers via the use of a mass flow meter. The first was installed on the MT Fair Artemis - a delivery vessel on charter to Oleum - in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The purpose of the installation of the Insatech Bunker Control System was to eliminate bunker fraud and improve transparency.

Speaking at the time of the installation, Jens Maul Jørgensen, chairman of The International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA), said: "It [the mass flow meter system] is a large investment for the young bunker player and might even be considered risky and premature for the West African market, it is however a move in the right direction for that particular market and the bunker market and its reputation in general."

Soendergaard said that Endofa will remain active in both the IFO and MGO market in West Africa going forward, "eyeing niche markets as its strong suit".

Despite anticipating a loss for 2014, the young bunker supply firm's core business of cargo and bunker trading is said to have been profitable this year. As a result, Endofa says it expects to post a profit in 2015.

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