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Oil major BP has ended its bunker activity at the Spanish port of Algeciras after deciding to end its lease of a chartered delivery barge, Platts reports.

Local supplier Peninsula Petroleum is reported to have taken over the lease of the barge, thereby expanding its supply capacity in the Strait of Gibraltar. With the addition of the new barge, the London-heaquartered firm is now said to operate a fleet of five bunker vessels in the Strait area.

The Port of Algeciras Bay is one of Spain's largest and is located at the crossroads of the world's main cargo shipping lanes. With its central location on routes linking West Africa, Asia, North Europe and the Americas, Algeciras is one of the busiest transshipment and container ports in the world and Spain's largest bunker port by volume.

Fuel is delivered by small bunker tankers to vessels that anchor off Algeciras - similar to the model used in Gibraltar. The principal difference between operations at Algeciras and Gibraltar is that suppliers in Gibraltar use large tankers to store fuel in the bay, whilst in Algeciras they deliver straight from the refinery or from land-based storage depots.

In recent years, bunker sales volumes have increased in Algeciras from around 2.3 million tonnes per year in 2007 to current annual levels of approximately 3 million tonnes.

The increase in bunker sales volumes in Algeciras has been mainly attributed to the rise in the number of container vessels calling at the port.