UAE’s BPGIC proposes storage, refining expansions at Fujairah

Brooge Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Brooge Petroleum & Gas Investment Co. FZC (BPGIC) has signed a land lease agreement with Fujairah Oil Industrial Zone (FOIZ) for additional land on which BPGIC plans to expand its crude oil storage and refining operations in Fujairah, UAE, near the East coast port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman.

As part of the agreement, BPGIC will lease a strategically located and prime plot of land with a total area of about 450,000 sq m for its proposed Phase 3 expansion of operations that, if completed, would make BPGIC the largest oil storage and service provider in Fujairah, BPGIC said in a series of posts to its official Twitter account as well as a separate news release.

“We are thrilled to announce that we have secured a lease for this strategic and sizeable plot of land in [FOIZ], which can accommodate additional capacity of over [three and a half] times our facilities currently operating and under construction. When the Phase 3 expansion is completed, we expect to become the largest oil storage and service provider in the increasingly important FOIZ [and] port of Fujairah,” said Nicolaas Paardenkooper, chief executive officer of both Brooge Holdings and BPGIC.

BPGIC plans to use the additional land to expand its storage and refining capacity to complement installations built at part of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 developments at the site, which following Phase 2’s completion, will total 1 million cu m of storage.

BPGIC’s initial studies indicate that the newly leased land could accommodate up to about 3.5 million cu m of storage tanks, as well as a potential refinery with a capacity of up to 180,000 b/d.

Currently in discussions with potential collaborators that include several top global oil majors who have expressed interest in collaborating on the expansion, BPGIC said it also has a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) in place for the Phase 3 development. The operator, however, revealed no further details regarding the MOU.

Refinery project

Last year, BPGIC announced it was building a 250,000-b/d refinery at Fujairah designed to produce bunker fuel that would become the first plant of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa to comply with the International Marine Organization’s (IMO) new regulations requiring ships to use marine fuels with a sulfur content below 0.5% (OGJ Online, May 13, 2019).

While the first phase of BPGIC’s proposed refinery was scheduled to be completed by first-quarter 2020, the operator has yet to confirm official commissioning of the plant.