---

CEPSA Marine Fuels (CMF) has announced that it will commence supplying RMK 500 fuel at Santa Cruz de Tenerife from Saturday, November 10.

In a statement, CMF said the decision to expand its product range was made in response to market demand.

Algeciras and The Strait of Gibraltar

Last year, CMF developed a fully operative infrastructure for RMK 500 fuel at the port of Algeciras. CMF increased its total bunker storage capacity to 310,000 cubic metres (cbm) at the port. The new facilities include two lines to load barges and one to discharge cargoes, which can be also used to load barges when unoccupied.

Barges at Algeciras can be loaded simultaneously at up to 700 cbm per hour for fuel oils and 250 cbm per hour for marine gasoil. The company has four barges operating at the port. Supplies by truck are also available through completely automated loading points.

CMF is a leading player in the ports of Algeciras, Ceuta and Gibraltar. The company sources its products from the CEPSA refinery in San Roque (Algeciras Bay), which distills around 12 million tonnes per year.

The Strait of Gibraltar is the largest bunkering hub in the Mediterranean and the second largest in Europe after Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA). In total, 7.5 - 8.5 million tonnes are sold per year in the Strait of Gibraltar with Gibraltar taking the largest market share at around 60 percent, Algeciras selling approximately 32 percent and Ceuta with 7.5-8 percent.

A total of 1.96 million tonnes of marine fuel were sold between January and August this year at the port of Algeciras. If bunker sales were to continue at the same rate until the end of the year, then volumes would reach 2.94 million tonnes by the end of 2012. Annual sales in recent years have averaged at around 2.4-2.5 million tonnes.

The increase in bunker sales volumes in Algeciras has been attributed to the rise in the number of container vessels calling at the port. Puertos del Estado, the government organization that coordinates port policy, recently released official data concerning the first 7 months of 2012, which showed that container traffic was up 22.32 percent at the Port of Algericas.

Canary Islands

CMF is a leading player in the Canary Islands market. The company sources its products for the marine fuels market from the CEPSA refinery in Tenerife, which has a distillation capacity of 4.5 millon tonnes per year.

Tenerife serves as a key commercial hub located along major trans-Atlantic seaborne trade routes, generating total sales volumes per year of more than 1.5 million metric tonnes.

In total, the ports of the Canary Islands are estimated to generate more than 3.5 million metric tonnes in annual bunker sales volumes.

Last year, Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. announced that it had expanded its global network with the launch of physical supply operations at Tenerife. The company began carrying out deliveries in Las Palmas in August 2010. .