A new Turkish bitumen export terminal at Ceyhan, southeast Turkey, is expected by parties involved in the project to be completed by March, further adding to cargo supplies into Mediterranean and other markets.
The final elements of work to complete six bitumen tanks with a total capacity of 45,500 cubic meters are currently underway at the Torosport Ceyhan terminal, which will be operated under lease by Turkish construction and bitumen supply firm Guven Asfalt.
The news follows the start-up of operations last month at a 30,000-35,000t capacity privately-owned and operated bitumen terminal at nearby Dortyol where around 45,000t of Iraqi Kurdistan bitumen cargo volumes have already been loaded for export shipment by international trading firms Vitol and Trafigura.
It had been indicated by sources familiar with the Torosport terminal project that Guven Asfalt would begin by running just 10,000t of bitumen tank capacity, a start-up that had been pushed back from its original June 2022 target, and that the new Dortyol operation had made it unlikely for Dortyol to begin operations anytime soon.
But officials involved in the Torosport project said today that the full 45,500m³ terminal project at Ceyhan would be completed by late February or early March, ready to begin truck discharge and cargo loading operations from March.
The precise make-up of bitumen truck supply sources into the new terminal, for onward cargo shipment to international markets, is yet to be determined, with Iraqi and potential Azeri supplies among options being considered.
The new operation will mean there will now be three Mediterranean export terminals in southeast Turkey, the other being the long-established BB Energy terminal in Mersin. While much of the flow to the existing Mersin terminal has in recent years been of Iraqi bitumen and virtually all flow into Dortyol earmarked as Iraqi Kurdistan flow, one Turkish market participant questioned the logistical viability of taking such volumes in a sustained manner.
Turkish refiner Tupras is itself a major bitumen cargo exporter from its Izmit and Izmir refinery terminals, with those flows amounting to about 1mn t last year.
