Fuel oil throughput in
Rotterdam skyrocketed 50 percent during the first six months of 2015 compared to last year, Port of Rotterdam Authority reports.
The amount of fuel oil passing through Europe's leading bunker port jumped by 11 million tonnes during a period that also saw the total throughput of liquid bulk increase by 15.4 percent.
According to Port of Rotterdam Authority, the relatively low oil price resulted in a build-up of inventory between January and June, which, at the same time, was largely responsible for the refineries recording high margins. It caused the capacity utilisation rates of local refineries to be quite high, for which large amounts of crude oil were imported. As a result, crude oil import volumes into Rotterdam rose by 8.3 percent.
As substantially more oil was refined in North West Europe and Russia, there was an oversupply of fuel oil in the region. Coinciding with a period when the price of fuel oil was subject to 'open arbitrage', this resulted in exports to the Far East via Rotterdam increasing significantly.
Throughput of fuel oil during the six-month period therefore rose by 50 percent. The import of gas oil and diesel rose slightly, while marginally less petrol was exported. In total, the throughput of oil products was 29.7 percent higher than last year.
The throughput of liquefied natural gas (LNG), although modest, more than doubled in the first six months of the year (+106.6%). The principal reasons for this were said to be the gradual decline of the LNG price in Asia and the increase in the re-export of LNG to industrial clusters in Europe, where there has been a shift from fuel or gas oil to LNG as the fuel for production processes.
Two high-profile investments in Rotterdam have been the construction of a biopropane unit at Neste Oil's biofuel plant and the construction of an LNG Breakbulk terminal, both in the Maasvlakte. The latter is set to be a key link facilitating the use of LNG as a transport fuel. Already, inland vessels and trucks can refuel with LNG in Rotterdam, several inland vessels sail on LNG, and the first sea-going vessels fuelled by LNG, the so-called dual fuel systems, are being launched. The number of inland vessels refuelling with LNG doubled in the first half of the year to 'roughly 37', Port of Rotterdam Authority said,
The throughput of other liquid bulk was stable (+0.6%).
