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A project to develop a major petroleum storage terminal in close proximity to the port of Fujairah has entered the construction phase, according to market sources.

Gulf Petrochem's new terminal is expected to take around 17 months to complete. The facility will have an initial capacity of around 412,000 cubic metres (cbm), however, it is planned for the terminal to reach an ultimate capacity of over 1 million cubic metres.

The terminal will feature dock pipeline connectivity to the Port of Fujairah, a pigging system for all dock pipelines, operational flexibility to handle Class A, B, C products in all tanks, a road tanker unloading and loading facility and will be built to NFPA standards, including all support systems such as OWS, ETP and compressor station.

The EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract was awarded in June 2010 to Topaz Engineering, through its subsidiary Nico International Hydrospace. Mott MacDonald was appointed project management consultant and given the task of overseeing the entire development.

Once completed, the new terminal will enable Gulf Petrochem to provide independent storage services for its liquid petroleum products and for customers at one of the world's leading bunkering ports.