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Spanish marine fuel supplier Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA) has announced that it has commenced operations at the ports of Ferrol and La Coruña, located in the north-west of Spain.

Explaining the reasons for its decision to supply in the area, CEPSA said that it had allocated "new resources in an area where supplies of marine fuels have been requested for a long time".

"These new facilities have been put in place to attend strategic traffic sailing from/to North Europe to/from South Europe, America, Africa and Asia," the company added.

CEPSA confirmed that it is able to supply at Ferrol and La Coruña by truck and via one double-hull barge, the Monte Arucas.

The 3,000-cubic-metre capacity Monte Arucas has a pumping rate of 600 cubic metres per hour (cbm/hr) for intermediate fuel oil and 250 cbm/hr for marine gasoil (MGO). The vessel will carry out deliveries at the anchorage of the ports of Ferrol and La Coruña.

The Monte Arucas has also been selected by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to protect environment along the Cantabrian Sea and the Spanish-French coasts. As a result, it is fitted with radar to detect oil residues and specialist equipment to combat oil spills and pump and store oil.

"By chartering this tanker ship, CEPSA is not only contributing to the protection of the environment but giving it total priority," CEPSA said.

CEPSA said that it has 55,000 cbm of storage at its disposal, of which 40,000 cbm are used to store high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO), 10,000 cbm to store low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) and 5,000 cbm for the storage of MGO. The company added that additional storage capacity could be made available in the future, depending on demand.