Maldives planning US150mn bunker, crude terminal

June 26, 2009 (LBO) – The Indian Ocean archipelago of Maldive Islands is planning a 150 million US dollar crude and bunker facility that can store six million cubic feet of oil, which will be leased to global fuel oil traders, a media report said. The Maldives National Oil Company (MNOC) is considering five possible islands for the project which will start towards the end of the year and take up to one and a half years to complete, Portsworld.com website reported.

About 75 percent of the storage will be for crude and the rest will be for bunker products, the report said quoting managing director Ahmed Muneez as having told an energy conference in Singapore.

The terminal will have blending facilities and jetties of single buoy moorings.

MNOC was inviting international fuel oil traders to commit to lease agreements of the storage capacity.

"We're still scouting for partners," Muneez was quoted as saying. "The storage capacity will be able to sell refined products to regional markets to take advantage of arbitrage and trading plays."

The Maldives atoll has more than 1,190 coral islets and about 200 inhabited islands.