News
A south coast storage opportunity
Since 2001, Portland Port located on the south coast of the UK has leased its bunker storage, pipeline and berth facility to Aegean Marine Petroleum Network. Later this year the facility will return back to the open market with the opportunity for a new tenant to occupy and manage the facility. The tanks were fully refurbished by Aegean who also built a new jetty to receive tanker deliveries; the facility has since been professionally managed and maintained to a high standard.
Approximately 40,000cbm of storage is available, split between four tanks of approximately 10,000 cbm each. The storage tanks are set deep in to the Isle of Portland, originally built by the Royal Navy and used for storage of the same products. The tanks are surrounded by Kimmeridge Clay, with each cylindrical tank measuring 300 metres in length and 7 metres in diameter. Two tanks are currently dedicated to holding marine fuel and the other two for marine diesel, along with a thermal fluid heating system used to heat the tanks.
The storage facility is further complemented by two pipelines (one being heated), 1.2 kilometres in length which connect to a bunker jetty which can accommodate vessels of up to 200metres LOA and up to 13 metres of draft. There are two loading arms on the berth, one for MGO the other for HFO.
Portland’s strategic geographical location is one of the port’s greatest assets with minimal deviation for vessels using the English Channel, along with the large, deep, sheltered inner and outer harbour; making the port an ideal location for vessels of all sizes to take bunkers. The pilotage is short and direct, being only 20 minutes to the anchorages and 30 minutes to all alongside berths. The outer harbour has depths of up 20m (C.D) and the inner harbour has depths of up to 15m (C.D.). The 3.5 miles of extensive breakwater system provides unrivalled protection, which has always given Portland the advantage when ship owners/operators/charterers are looking for a protected location for their vessels to undertake services afloat.
www.portland-port.co.uk