Aramco Trading Company (ATC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco and its commercial trading arm, announced on Tuesday that it has commenced bunkering operations at Yanbu Industrial Port in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Energy, the Saudi Customs Authority and the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani).

ATC said in a statement its storage and blending facilities at Yanbu are capable of supplying up to 150,000 metric tonnes per month of bunker supplies, with the potential for further upscaling.

The company has also commissioned a 6,000-deadweight tonnage (DWT) barge, the MT Halki, equipped with mass flow metres for bunkering operations.

ATC's first delivery of 1,600 metric tonnes of very low sulphur fuel oil to MT Lake Trout complied with International Maritime Organisation regulations, which mandate a maximum sulphur content of 0.5 percent, the statement said.

Ibrahim Al-Buainain, CEO of ATC, said: “Yanbu is strategically located southeast of the Suez Canal in the Red Sea, and we seek to provide shipowners with certainty around pricing, availability, quality and logistics to develop Yanbu’s potential as a bunkering hub in the region.”

ATC has offices in Dhahran (Saudi Arabia), Singapore, Fujairah (United Arab Emirates) and London.

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Seban Scaria)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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