TotalEnergies has begun operating its expanded bitumen terminal on Teesside in northeast England, allowing the firm to deliver larger bitumen tankers into the Navigator Terminals storage complex there.
The French oil company completed the terminal expansion in May last year, adding 12,000t to an existing 10,000t of storage capacity. But delays in connecting a new jetty — scheduled to have been completed in June 2023 — to the new terminal's tanks meant it took until this month for the expanded facility to receive its first bitumen cargo. The new jetty enables the terminal to handle bitumen tankers of up to 20,000-30,000 deadweight tonnes (dwt).
The cargo was delivered in mid-January on board TotalEnergies' 6,189dwt time chartered bitumen tanker Iver Blessing and loaded at the firm's 219,000 b/d Donges refinery on the French Atlantic coast. The same tanker is due to arrive at the Teesside terminal on 4 February to discharge a fresh cargo loaded at Tarragona in Spain.
The expanded terminal gives TotalEnergies enhanced capability to import bitumen to the UK, which has become even more import dependent since Prax ceased bitumen production at the 109,000 b/d Lindsey refinery in northeast England early last year after feedstock supply issues. Prax acquired the Lindsey refinery from TotalEnergies in 2020.
TotalEnergies' bitumen business stands to benefit from the UK government's decision to boost road funding in northern England after axing part of its high-speed rail link project HS2. The firm already runs the 10,000t capacity Thames bitumen terminal at Grays in Essex, southeast England.
Continental Bitumen, the trading and supply unit of French construction firm Colas, has just taken delivery of the inaugural cargo at its new Bristol terminal in southwest England on board the 21,500dwt San du Ao, which loaded at Turkish company Tupras' refinery and export terminal at Izmit.
