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Belgium's Verbeke Bunkering, a subsidiary of Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, has announced that its fully owned barge, the Steindamm, has been relocated to the port of Zeebrugge.

The 1,634 dwt barge will supply all grades of intermediate fuel oil (IFO) and marine gas oil (MGO) at Zeebrugge. Verbeke said it intends for the vessel to carry out small and prompt deliveries in order to enhance the operational flexibility of the company.

The addition of the Steindamm increases the company's fleet of barges at Zeebrugge to five and the available tonnage to more than 17,000 metric tonnes.

The Steindamm has the capacity to store up to 1050 metric tonnes of IFO and 600 metric tonnes of MGO. The vessel's pumping rate is 450 metric tonnes per hour.

Prior to being relocated to Zeebrugge, the Steindamm was operating in various locations across the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam (ARA) region.

Last month Aegean announced that it had taken delivery of the Montana, a 4,560 dwt double-hull newbuild. The estuary barge, which was purchased in connection with the 2010 acquisition of Verbeke, was deployed to the ARA region.

Speaking last month about the addition of the Montana, E. Nikolas Tavlarios, President, commented: "This new double-hull barge provides our company with greater operational flexibility in the safe and reliable transportation and distribution of multiple grades of fuel in order to meet the needs of our high credit quality customers."

As a physical supplier, Verbeke Bunkering covers the entire ARA region, including key ports surrounding Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, such as Ghent, Zeebrugge, Flushing, Terneuzen, and Sluiskil.

Verbeke focuses on purchasing marine fuels from refineries and major oil producers and providing sales and delivery services to customers. The annual volume of marine fuel sold by Verbeke is approximately 3.5 - 3.7 million metric tonnes.