Reports from Egypt say work is moving ahead on construction of a new bunker and bulk liquids storage terminal in Port Said.
Sources told Bunkerworld that land-based shore protection work was 75% complete and that off-shore construction work would begin in March.
Earlier this month, the Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif headed a government delegation to the project and laid a ceremonial foundation stone.
The terminal is being built by Mashreq Petroleum, a subsidiary of Taqa, an Egyptian energy company and the biggest private equity company in the region.
It unveiled its plans for the new facility at a Bunkerworld conference in Athens in May this year.
Mashreq has said that its target, once operations become established, is to supply up to five million metric tonnes (mt) of marine fuel a year.
In a break with the past, it has said most of the product would come from outside Egypt, in particular from the Black Sea.
The terminal is close to the Maersk container terminal on the eastern side of Port Said.
The company has said it wants the facility to be in operation by 2010.
Sources told Bunkerworld on Monday that the terminal would have capacity to store 520,000 cubic metres of material in 30 tanks.
There will be four loading berths for bunker barges.
Annual bunker sales in the Egyptian market are currently estimated at between 2.5 million and 3 million metric tonnes (mt), although players have said the market would be bigger if supplies were less erratic.
Until now, the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has been almost the sole provider of product to the bunker market.
Port Said, at the northern end of the Suez Canal and Port Suez in the south dominate Egypt's bunker market. Port Suez has been the largest of the two bunker supply ports.
Sources told Bunkerworld that land-based shore protection work was 75% complete and that off-shore construction work would begin in March.
Earlier this month, the Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif headed a government delegation to the project and laid a ceremonial foundation stone.
The terminal is being built by Mashreq Petroleum, a subsidiary of Taqa, an Egyptian energy company and the biggest private equity company in the region.
It unveiled its plans for the new facility at a Bunkerworld conference in Athens in May this year.
Mashreq has said that its target, once operations become established, is to supply up to five million metric tonnes (mt) of marine fuel a year.
In a break with the past, it has said most of the product would come from outside Egypt, in particular from the Black Sea.
The terminal is close to the Maersk container terminal on the eastern side of Port Said.
The company has said it wants the facility to be in operation by 2010.
Sources told Bunkerworld on Monday that the terminal would have capacity to store 520,000 cubic metres of material in 30 tanks.
There will be four loading berths for bunker barges.
Annual bunker sales in the Egyptian market are currently estimated at between 2.5 million and 3 million metric tonnes (mt), although players have said the market would be bigger if supplies were less erratic.
Until now, the state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has been almost the sole provider of product to the bunker market.
Port Said, at the northern end of the Suez Canal and Port Suez in the south dominate Egypt's bunker market. Port Suez has been the largest of the two bunker supply ports.