Monjasa pushes English alternative to ARA bunkering hub

Danish bunker supplier Monjasa is building up its presence in the English Channel, where it hopes to establish an alternative to the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub.

Monjasa earlier this week sold a terminal at Skaw, Denmark, to Unioil Supply, a subsidiary of Denmark's Bunker Holding. As part of the sale, terms of which were not disclosed, Monjasa moved the 3,800 dwt tanker, MT Fredericia, from Skaw to Portland on England's south coast. There it will join the 4,300 dwt MT Skaw Provider to service a terminal that Monjasa operates with Portland Bunkers UK.

Monjasa said it has seen year on year increases in bunker sales across the UK and France since it took over the Portland oil terminal from Aegean Marine Petroleum in 2016.

"The area around Portland Port is becoming a flexible alternative to, for example, Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA), and we expect to keep seeing positive developments over the coming years," it said.

It said that customer feedback suggests Portland has a number of advantages over ARA as a bunkering destination, including the opportunity for bunkers-only calls, no calling costs, short waiting times and no draft restrictions at the port's outer anchorage. Portland is more "niche", Monjasa said, with more focus on bunker-only calls, and it said that average cargo sizes around Portland were "significantly larger" than those at Skaw last year.

Portland has four storage tanks with combined capacity of 44,000m³, which hold grades including 0.1pc marine gasoil (MGO) and 0.5pc sulphur marine fuel oil. Before the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) 0.5pc sulphur cap entered into force at the start of this year, two of Portlan'd four tanks held 3.5pc sulphur fuel oil and two held 0.1pc sulphur MGO. In preparation for the sulphur cap, the two 3.5pc fuel oil tanks were cleaned and switched over to IMO-compliant 0.5pc fuel oil.

Monjasa's other operations in the English Channel include at Tongue Anchorage off England's east coast and at sites in France. It hopes to expand operations in the English Channel once global trade "regains its strength", it said.

Monjasa does not provide supply volumes for individual ports but does so regionally. Of the 4.5mn t of marine fuels if supplied in 2019, around 19pc was in Europe.

By George Collard