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Chemoil to double UAE oil storage in 2 years

The Singapore-listed company also plans to start trading clean oil products such as gas oil and jet fuel in Asia from 2009. This will be supported by its new storage terminal in Singapore, which will be launched on Thursday, as well as its facilities in the Americas and Fujairah, said Clyde Michael Bandy.

The expansion of its oil terminal in the United Arab Emirates from 100,000 tonnes is in line with the aggressive global vision of Chemoil’s founder Robert Chandran, who died in a helicopter accident in Indonesia last month, he said.

Bandy, however, said he will take a more measured approach to expanding the firm, which is worth half a billion dollars.

‘We are going to drive this company forward and we are going to do it in a very thoughtful fashion... it would be foolish of me to say that my risk appetite is the same as Bob’s,’ Bandy, who has been in the oil business for 35 years, told Reuters.

Bandy, previously president of ChevronTexaco’s Fuel and Marine Marketing LLC (FAMM), said he would continue Chandran’s ambitions of expanding the company’s geographic footprint and its product offering.

He said Chemoil, which operates a joint venture sales and marketing operation in refined products with Japan’s Itochu Petroleum in the US West Coast, is expected to start a similar trading business in Asia. It is in active discussions with the Singapore government to expand its new 450,000 cubic metres terminal by about 40 percent to accommodate clean products.

‘It would be premature to say that 2008 will be the year you would see a significant rollout of this (clean product strategy). I would think we are talking 2009 and beyond,’ the 59-year-old Bandy said in an interview.