Two UK bitumen terminals projects are facing delays, at a time when the country has become ever more reliant on imports.
The completion of Colas unit Continental Bitumen's new terminal at Avonmouth in southwest England and TotalEnergies' expansion of its Teesside facility in northeast England, are both behind schedule.
Completion of the former has been pushed back to the last quarter of this year after a series of delays. It was originally planned to be finished by mid-2022. If the new timetable is met, Continental will be able to store bitumen during the winter for sale when the road paving season starts in Spring 2024, and perhaps sell some from the new facility to UK and other buyers looking to replenish their stocks.
TotalEnergies completed the expansion of its bitumen storage to an estimated 20,000-30,000t at Navigator Terminals' Teesside terminal complex in May this year but has faced delays finishing a new jetty that will enable it to accommodate vessels up to and including the 20,000-30,000 deadweight tonne (dwt) range. This will replace an existing jetty that can only handle tankers up to 7,000 dwt. There is no indication on the timeframe for completion of the new jetty, which had been due to be up and running from June.
The UK, already a major bitumen importer (see graph), became even more import reliant when Prax' 105,700 b/d Lindsey refinery ceased bitumen production in the first quarter of the year. But the country has plenty of existing import terminals, including at Eastham, Teesside, Belfast, Dundee and Thames. Trading firm Trafigura has been operating a floating bitumen storage in recent years off the south coast of Wales, on the opposite side of the Bristol Channel from Continental Bitumen's new Avonmouth terminal.
The UK last year consumed 1.56mn t of bitumen, with 790,000t imported, according to Vortexa data.
By Tom Woodlock and Keyvan Hedvat
