Doris Leblond
OGJ Correspondent
PARIS, Feb. 1 -- The Oiltanking-Mediaco group, a subsidiary of the Hamburg-based German group Marquard & Bahls AG, has confirmed that it will install an oil products storage depot at the Port of Marseille, bolstering Marseille-Fos as a products trading hub in the Mediterranean.
The 800,000 cu m depot will provide an extra 6 million tonnes/year of capacity when it comes on stream in 2010. Oiltanking-Mediaco will invest more than €200 million in the project, which is located in the Cavaou part of the Fos oil terminal.
It was partly due to these new anticipated traffic flows that the Marseille Port Authority decided in November 2007 to invest nearly €32.7 million to increase the receiving capacities for oil products at Fos to 132 million tonnes in 2011 from 6 million tonnes in 2006.
The purpose is to meet the expanding products traffic, which increased by 50% during 2001-06 and is expected to continue to increase.
Oiltanking-Mediaco operates 73 storage terminals in 21 countries.
