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Delta Rubis's oil terminal project in Ceyhan, Turkey, is nearing its third phase following the commissioning of a new jetty.

The Ceyhan storage facility is the largest independent oil terminal in the Mediterranean. The first phase of the project resulted in the construction of 11 tanks with a total capacity of 650,000 cubic metres (cbm) contracted to a customer base of international oil operators.

The second phase, which commenced in April 2014, has been the development of a jetty with six berths and a maximum draft of up to 19 metres, accommodating vessels of up to 200,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt).

The new jetty will allow the oil terminal to increase its vessel throughput volume capability. Additionally, it is set to increase the handling of smaller coaster vessels for regional bunker deliveries and domestic and nearby regional supply markets.

The jetty construction was last year reported to have been financed via a US$65 million structured loan facility arranged by BNP Paribas Group.

Sami Habbab, CEO of Delta Rubis, is quoted as saying: "We are proud to successfully complete our newest jetty investment and welcomed the first two vessels to our Ceyhan Terminal as four types of cargo - ULSD [ultra-low-sulphur diesel], gas oil, fuel oil and VGO [vacuum gasoil] cargo.

"Delta Rubis believes in the high potential of the Ceyhan, which has become a crossroad for pipelines and interconnects the hinterland region to service international oil trading activity.

"This new jetty investment paves the way to grow the terminal's capacity to reach a capacity of one million cubic metres in the very near future."

The next stage of the project, phase three, is the construction of 350,000 cbm additional capacity transit tanks following the jetty commissioning period. Once completed, this will increase the facility's total capacity to around one million cbm.

Located in the south-east region of Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast, Ceyhan lies at the hub of two pipelines: the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, bringing crude oil from the Caspian Sea, and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan (KC) pipeline, which transports crude from Kirkuk in Iraq.

This area of the Eastern Mediterranean looks set to become a key logistical hub for the region's oil products, with inter-Mediterranean flows, exports to Africa and Asia, and proximity to the Suez Canal and the Black Sea.

Delta Rubis is a joint venture between Turkey's Delta Petrol and French firm Rubis.