News bulletin – storage terminals

NEWS BULLETIN

STORAGE TERMINALS

HES CHANGES HANDS

Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and Goldman Sachs affiliate West Street Infrastructure Partners III (WSIP) have completed the acquisition of HES International from Riverstone Holdings and the Carlyle Group. The new shareholders, who each control 50 per cent of HES, say they look forward to working in partnership with the Executive Board and HES employees to further develop and grow the company.

“MIRA and WSIP are supportive of management’s strategy to grow HES through investment in new projects and to strengthen the existing operations of the terminals,” HES says.

HES is currently implementing a €700m transformation and growth strategy, which includes construction of the new 1.3m-m3 HES Hartel Tank Terminal in Rotterdam. www.hesinternational.eu

CONSOLIDATION IN AUSTRALIA

ANZ Terminals has acquired GrainCorp Liquid Terminals (Australia), a subsidiary of GranCorp Ltd that operates eight bulk liquids storage terminals in Australia, for some A$350m. The terminals, located across the country, have an aggregate capacity of some 211,000 m3 and are used for the storage and handling of fats, oils, fuels and chemicals for a range of customers.

“This acquisition expands our footprint across the Australian bulk liquid terminals market, including key sites in Queensland and Victoria, and opens up new geographies for us in Western Australia and Tasmania,” says Nick Moen, CEO of ANZ Terminals. “It also diversifies our customer base and the range of commodities we store, with GLT’s terminals providing significant storage in edibles and tallow.”

As part of the sale, GrainCorp has entered into a long-term storage agreement with ANZ Terminals. The sites were acquired by GrainCorp in 2012 as part of its purchase of Gardner Smith. GrainCorp has not included its New Zealand sites in the deal as they are more well integrated into its operations, but says it is reviewing its options. www.terminalspl.com.au

AMID AT AN END

American Midstream Partners has reported adjusted EBITDA of $285.5m for the full year 2018, up from $244.9m in the previous year. Profits from its terminalling services division fell sharply, following the sale of its marine products terminals in August and its refined products terminals in late December.

American Midstream is now to be merged with an affiliate of ArcLight Energy Partners, a deal that it expected to close in the second quarter. www.americanmidstream.com

STABLE AT STOLTHAVEN

Stolthaven Terminals has reported first-quarter operating profit of $18.0m, up by $6.3m on the prior period, which included an impairment charge of $6.1m. The company reports stable market conditions and operations.

Niels G Stolt-Nielsen, CEO of parent Stolt-Nielsen, says: “At Stolthaven, our uneventful first quarter is, we believe, an indication of increased stability and better things to come, as the actions we have taken in recent years to strengthen the long-term performance of this business continue to take hold.

“The fire at ITC’s facility in Houston in March is already impacting the local chemical industry, including both transportation and storage,” Stolt-Nielsen adds, although it seems the impact will be felt mostly in Stolt Tankers due to delays caused by the closure of parts of the Houston Ship Channel during and after the event. www.stolt-nielsen.com

TALLGRASS DEAL CLOSES

Affiliated of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners have closed the acquisition of 100 per cent of Tallgrass Energy’s general partner and 44 per cent of Tallgrass Energy itself from affiliates of Kelco & Co, The Energy & Minerals Group and Tallgrass KC. The acquisition cost BIP

some $3.2bn. Affiliates of GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and Spanish energy company Enagás are minority investors in the transaction. www.tallgrassenergy.com

GPS ENHANCES AMSTERDAM

Global Petro Storage (GPS) and the Port of Amsterdam are to develop a railcar connection on land adjacent to GPS’s existing 11-tank gasoline and biofuel storage and blending facility. The new link will increase the efficiency of fuel deliveries across Europe and complements the port’s strategy of endorsing good rail connections to and from Amsterdam.

“This agreement enables GPS to continue the successful expansion programme that began when we acquired the terminal in late 2016, including adding significant gasoline capacity to our current terminal, which will come on stream in the second half of this year,” says Peter Vucins, EMEA director at GPS.

GPS has also begun construction of a new LPG storage facility in Port Klang, Malaysia. The $300m project, due for completion by early 2021, has been developed in partnership with Equinor and with support from the Malaysian government.

“As well as enabling critical strategic reserves to be placed on Malaysian soil, the terminal significantly improves the LPG supply chain reliability in Malaysia and provides opportunities for domestic players to supply other countries in the region,” says Eric Arnold, CEO of GPS Group. The 134,000-m3 Port Klang LPG terminal will have separate storage tanks for refrigerated propane and butane, as well as facilities for heating and mixing to produce various blends of LPG. GPS says it is actively pursuing other potential LPG and LNG terminal projects in south-east Asia. www.gpsgroup.com

THE NEW REPUBLIC

Nuevo Midstream Dos is planning to acquire Republic Midstream. Nuevo Midstream, a provider of midstream solutions to producers and marketers of crude oil, condensate, natural gas and NGL, is expected to complete the acquisition in the second quarter of 2019. Republic Midstream owns a crude oil gathering, storage and intermediate transport system in the Eagle Ford shale area.

Nuevo Dos plans to expand the current system of 100 miles of gathering pipeline, feeding a central delivery point with 300,000 bbl of crude oil storage and a six-bay truck station. Randy Zeibarth, CEO and president at Nuevo Dos, says: “We are very excited about this acquisition and the opportunity to expand the footprint and service offerings of the Republic system. We really like these assets and their location within the Eagle Ford. The Eagle Ford is experiencing a resurgence and is advantaged by its proximity to the Gulf. Nuevo Dos looks forward to helping producers fully participate in moving crude and condensate to market.” www.nuevomidstream.com

COLT LOSES A PARTNER

Kinder Morgan is reported to have pulled out of the Texas COLT offshore crude oil terminal project, selling its stake to lead developer Enbridge. “Given the ongoing commitment required to move this project forward through the regulatory phase and, after an internal review within Kinder Morgan, it was determined that continuing with the project does not align with our strategic priorities,” the company said in a statement.

The Texas COLT project envisages an offshore platform with two single-point mooring buoys capable of fully loading a 2m-bbl VLCC in 24 hours; the offshore facilities will be linked by a 42-inch pipeline to an onshore tank farm with up to 15m bbl of storage capacity. An application for construction of the project was filed with the US Maritime Administration at the end of January 2019. www.enbridge.com