Aegean confirms acquisition of OW Bunker assets
Greece’s Aegean Marine Petroleum Network has confirmed that it will acquire marine fuel and assume a storage contract with Vopak Terminal Los Angeles at an auction of OW Bunker’s assets.
The purchase price for 28,567 metric tonnes of bunkers and the storage contract came up to approximately $11m.
E. Nikolas Tavlarios, president of Aegean, commented: “This transaction is aligned with Aegean's strategy to opportunistically enter new markets to service unmet and increasing demand, while enhancing shareholder value.
“Having a presence at the Vopak Terminal in Los Angeles will substantially broaden Aegean's access to the marine fuel markets of the US west coast, and in so doing round out Aegean's profile as a global marine fuel provider,” he said.
Aegean’s announcement confirmed earlier reports that the marine fuel supplier is purchasing OW Bunker’s assets at a US auction.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach combined form the largest container port in the US with annual volumes of 14.6m teu in 2013 and serve as the key trade hubs between North America and Asia.
New York-listed Aegean expects to integrate much of the bankrupted OW Bunker operating infrastructure in Los Angeles into its group and start operations at the Vopak Terminal in the first quarter of 2015.
OW Bunker had launched its physical operations in Los Angeles and Long Beach earlier this year, saying that next year it could be a key market for distillate sales due to the enforcement of IMO’s Emissions Control Area (ECA) regulation from 1 January 2015.
The US subsidiaries of OW Bunker filed for bankruptcy on 13 November, after the collapse of its parent company in the previous week.
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