Aegean Marine Petroleum S.A has this week confirmed that it expects to launch its storage facility in
Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, during the second half of 2014 and generate revenue from customers during this period also.
In a conference call to discuss the company's results for the fourth quarter of 2013,
E. Nikolas (Nick) Tavlarios [pictured], President, said: "We expect to commence operations at our Fujairah storage facility in the second half of the year 2014 and anticipate the facility will begin meaningful contributions to our EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization], storage fees and volumes in 2014. We are excited to capitalize on the emerging opportunities in the region."
The launch of the Fujairah facility looks set to be later than predicted last year. In an earnings call in August 2013, Tavlarios said that the company expected to complete the facility before the end of 2013 and commence utilization in early 2014. However, Aegean's President explained this week that the reason for the delay was due to regulation issues.
Omar Nokta, Managing Director and Senior Shipping Analyst at
Global Hunter Securities, asked Tavlarios about the potential of Aegean leasing out half of the Fujairah storage capacity to a third party. "Is that still something that you are looking to do, and if so, have you guys entered into any contract or secured any of that open capacity?"
Tavlarios replied: "We are in conversation with various firms, the plan is to launch operations by having us as the first customer. Then, as typical with running tankage, you then become approved from a safety perspective to operate and engage other customers - known as the vetting process. And, once that is completed, then we'll be able to engage in contracts with those other customers. So that's the protocol and the process and that'll go on over the next months."
In answer to a question about how an improving crude oil tanker market would impact Aegean's business both from an activity standpoint and also from a customer credit worthiness standpoint, Tavlarios said: "First and foremost we operate one of our biggest operations in Fujairah, which is one of the biggest crude oil ports in the world. So that definitely improves to your busier area and yes you’re going to have more creditworthy customers operating in that area. And, as you know, we've made a substantial investment putting our storage facility there and we have good expectations that'll come out there, and the tanker business is an important part of our customer basis. So having them do better is very, very good to us."
Nokta later asked Tavlarios: "Would you feel comfortable being able to say whether the potential revenue from those customers would be more of a 2015 event as opposed to 2014?" To which Tavlarios replied: "No, our expectation is in the second half of 2014."
Aegean's President also confirmed that the company plans to offload its floating storage in Fujairah. "As we launch operations in our shore site storage in Fujairah, we'll sell the floating storage that we have in that market," he said.
