The terms of the transaction have not been revealed by either parties. However, it is expected to be completed by the month end.
The investment in Maasvlakte Olie Terminal from Aramco adds to its current stakes in other facilities in the same region, enabling it to expand its offerings in the North West Europe refining hub.
It is also expected to complement the export activities of Saudi Aramco across Europe while boosting its supply chain and improve its customer services in the region.
For the Switzerland-based commodities trader Gunvor Group, the transaction is part of its strategy to further develop its refining operations in Rotterdam.
Gunvor, through its last year acquisition of Europoort refinery in the Port of Rotterdam from Kuwait Petroleum International, had acquired a participating stake in Maasvlakte Olie Terminal. The refinery was renamed later as Gunvor Petroleum Rotterdam.
Maasvlakte Olie Terminal has a capacity of 1,090,861cbm and has 39 storage tanks. The terminal is used for import, export, distribution stores crude oil and petrochemicals.
Considered to be one of the world’s largest oil terminals, Maasvlakte Olie Terminal caters to the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp ports that constitute the major oil hub in northwest Europe.
The Rotterdam fuels terminal is a joint venture owned by a consortium of oil firms like BP, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and storage firm Volpak.
Maasvlakte Olie Terminal is claimed to store about one-third of the total crude oil supply into Rotterdam every year. It has nearly 240 supertankers that supply crude oil to its storage tanks.
Image: An oil storage tank of the Maasvlakte Olie Terminal in the Port of Rotterdam. Photo: courtesy of Zandcee/Wikipedia.org.
