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Cockett Marine Oil has signed a long-term storage deal with Oikos Ltd., which will provide 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 where Cockett operates a bunkers-only facility, supplying vessels transiting the English Channel.

The bunkering anchorages are a very short deviation from the shipping lanes. The new storage facility is ideally situated to support this service, as well as the barge service, which Cockett operates on the River Thames and the Southend deep water anchorages, where vessels often wait for berth availability.

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.

The current setup enables supplies to legitimately continue when the STS legislation governing UK waters is finally implemented, presently scheduled for early 2012. The service has continued to expand and now covers other south east UK ports as well as many northern French ports, for which Cockett is fully licensed.

Cockett has also invested in the provision of comprehensive Tier 2 spill response resources to support these operations, a move that is said to have been achieved with the full collaboration of the Port of London Authority and local stakeholders.

Cockett said it recognized the potential to operate from the Oikos terminal due to its location and the deep water available at the jetties. The company agreed a long-term deal, which supports the building of a dedicated bunker facility with a capacity of 32,000 cubic metres over 4 tanks.

"Cockett, Oikos and other parties have worked closely in designing this facility which will be one of the most modern and state of the art purpose built bunker terminals in Europe. It is designed to achieve the ultimate cost optimization and the quickest turnaround times as Cockett has ambitious plans to develop and grow the bunkering services in and around the UK and English Channel ports," Cockett said in a statement.

"In contrast, running such operations from non-purpose built facilities is a challenge, not least due to the congestion and subsequent delays often experienced when loading. It is therefore anticipated that end users throughout the region will receive a major boost to service levels when the facility comes online in April 2012," Cockett added.

Cockett said that another major consideration for investing in the project was the development of the ‘London Gateway’ terminal by DP World, which is situated very close to the Oikos terminal. The formal opening date of Q4 2013 was recently announced in a blaze of publicity.

Grindrod already has physical supply capability in the UK and Rotterdam. It operates barges in these locations as well as in the South African market through another Grindrod vehicle, Unical.

"The addition of the purpose built terminal now means that the group has all the resources to become a major player in the area and provide the speed and level of service required to facilitate competitive and timely supplies to the ships due to call at the London Gateway when it opens. The group is very excited about the future of these projects and anticipates being a major player in the development of shipping services in the region for many years to come," Cockett said.