SOCAR Aurora Terminal Expansion in Fujairah Faces Delay

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--The ongoing expansion of SOCAR Aurora Oil Products Terminal in Fujairah is facing a major setback, as the completion deadline has been pushed back by another seven months.

The SOCAR Aurora Fujairah Terminal is a joint venture of SOCAR (Baku, Azerbaijan), which is the state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan Republic, Aurora Progress S.A. (London, England) and the government of Fujairah. It presently has an operational capacity of 115,000 cubic meters. The second phase of expansion envisages adding another 235,000 cubic meters of capacity to the existing facility.

The terminal expansion project, which was previously slated for commissioning in April 2013, is now expected to be operational only by November 2013.

The Fujairah oil product terminal has been proposed to be developed in three phases comprising of 115,000-cubic-meter, 235,000-cubic-meter and 295,000-cubic-meter capacity, respectively. On being fully operational, the terminal will have 22 tanks to handle products like fuel oil, gasoline, naphtha and middle distillates. The state-of-the-art terminal also will be equipped with both tank-to-tank and in-line blending facilities.

The $61 million Phase II project has been funded by Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp) (Dammam, Saudi Arabia) and National Bank of Fujairah (Fujairah, United Arab Emirates). Apicorp is the lead bank providing a total of $110 million in funding to the second and third phases of the terminal.

SOCAR Aurora is an independent terminal operator offering storage capacity to third parties. Incorporated in 1992, the company is responsible for managing all oil and gas assets and activities for the Republic of Azerbaijan, while Aurora Progress S.A. is a privately owned, Switzerland-based company with interests in trade, supply, transport and storage of refined petroleum products.

Strategically located outside the Straits of Hormuz, the terminal is the second-largest bunkering port across the globe and can accommodate tankers of up to 280,000 dead-weight tonnes. It presently holds seven berths, with three more in the pipeline.

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