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UK firm Geos Group confirmed on Monday that it has taken over road tanker delivery operations of marine gas oil (MGO) at the port of Blyth, Northumberland, from Texas-headquartered energy company Phillips 66.

Phillips 66 is said to be stepping back from end-user sales in the UK locations where it stores physical stock of marine gas oil, including Blyth.

Geos owns and operates the marine gas oil (MGO) storage terminal in Blyth, and manages ex-pipe bunkering operations there. The company's three tanks at the port have a total storage capacity of 15 million litres.

Commenting on the news, Adrian Proctor, commercial director at Geos, said: "This new development at Blyth is a good step forward for our business and is in step with our overall strategy of being in control of our supply chain from refinery to vessel. Managing our own fuel storage tanks, ex-pipe operations, sea tanker movements and road transport logistics puts us firmly in control of our inventory and the level of service we offer - and ultimately gives us a competitive advantage over other marine gas oil suppliers."

The UK supplier added that the handover of road tanker deliveries at Blyth from Phillips 66 had been "very straightforward" thanks to its "resources and expertise".

In addition to Blyth, Geos provides road transport delivery services from other UK ports, including Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth.

Ship-to-ship

Geos also offers ship-to-ship transfers of MGO to ships in a number of UK ports, and in May took delivery of a new vessel, the Thun Grace - significantly larger than Geos's outgoing vessel, the Milford Fisher - with the company declaring that it expected to be able to grow its sales volume and provide a faster, more responsive service to its customers as a result.

The Thun Grace is being used to transport MGO from oil refineries to fuel storage tanks in Geos's six physical supply locations: Aberdeen, Blyth, Great Yarmouth, Lerwick, Heysham and Montrose.