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Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Ltd. has announced that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has granted approval to Zhoushan Brightoil Terminal Co., Ltd. for its construction project to develop oil storage and terminal facilities at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, located in Laotangshan Port Zone on Waidiao Island.

The NDRC has granted approval for a total length of berths amounting to 1,395 metres. With a designed annual capacity of 32.9 million tonnes, the project will be equipped with four berths to accommodate vessels of 300,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt), 100,000 dwt, 50,000 dwt and 20,000 dwt, respectively.

With the construction contract signed with China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau in June this year to build the first phase of oil storage facilities on Waidiao Island in Zhoushan, construction of Brightoil's storage and transshipment base in Zhoushan is in full progress.

Brightoil's storage and transshipment base is located on Waidiao Island in the Zhoushan Island Archipelago New Area in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province. With a total capacity of 3.16 million cubic metres (cbm) in oil tanks, the facility will be equipped with 13 berths to accommodate vessels from 1,000 to 300,000 dwt.

The total investment for the storage and transshipment base is said to have reached approximately US$1 billion, and construction is scheduled be completed in two phases.

With an estimated capacity of 1.94 million cbm, Phase 1 is expected to commence commercial operations around the end of 2014. Phase 2 has an estimated capacity of 1.22 million cbm. Commercial operations are projected to commence around the first half of 2015 upon completion of construction.

Dr. Sit Kwong Lam, Chairman & CEO of the Group, said, "Leveraging its strategic geographic location, the project will generate stable rental income for the Group and will enable synergies with the group's international trading and bunkering business and marine transportation business for better economies of scale. It will also contribute significantly to the group's operational performance on the whole by enhancing the quality and efficiency of its bunkering and crude trading business and will play an active role in the development of a national strategic oil reserve."

"Executive meetings of the state council have been stressing the need to introduce a number of industry-oriented projects that are favourable to the transformation and enhancement of private companies. The granting of approval for the project is an important initiative that is in line with the implementation of national policies," Brightoil said.