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COPING IN A CRISIS BUSINESS • OPERATING A BULK LIQUIDS STORAGE TERMINAL THIS YEAR HAS BEEN AN EXCITING AFFAIR. DAN BALT HAS WITNESSED SOME MAJOR CHANGES BUT HAS PULLED THROUGH “2020 HAS PROVEN to be a staggeringly disruptive year,” says Murad Yusuf of GTL Terminals, parent of Dan Balt Tank Lager (DBTL). “Most industries have had their foundations rocked to the core, the way in which we manage our daily routines has had to be completely reinvented; some aspects are a welcome change but others are not so comforting.” Reassuringly, the tank storage business has largely benefitted from the crisis, primarily due to the market contango that was triggered by over-supply and then collapse in oil product demand from the start of the year. DBTL witnessed a flood of storage demand in March, with its commodity trader clients taking advantage of a market that had been struggling in recent years during a lengthy backwardation. With most other businesses confined to working from home, storage terminals have,
DAN BALT’S TERMINAL IN AABENRAA HAS ENJOYED FULL OCCUPANCY DURING A TURBULENT PERIOD
HCB MONTHLY | OCTOBER 2020
for the most part, have been able to work throughout lockdowns. This has allowed DBTL to provide its newly anchored customers with a seamless service, and receiving product through Aabenraa port, facilitating loading and offloading to road tankers through its prized loading ramp infrastructure. “Being in a smaller town has also provided the advantage of key terminal staff being readily available for work, and a much lower risk than in larger metropolises,” Yusuf notes. “Circumstances this year have made our personnel much more adept at managing processes for clients digitally. For instance, at the peak of client acquisition in March, which happened to be the peak lockdown period as well, due diligence that has always been an in-person third-party site visit was reconfigured to be completely remote through video-based meeting, with all documentation exchange processed electronically.” FILL UP THE TANKS The surge in demand for storage at DBTL filled its 17 tanks, which offer some 160,000 m³ of capacity. The products involved included
ultra-low sulphur diesel, waste oil, gasoil, liquid nitrogen fertiliser and bio-diesel. “It has also permitted some of our tanks that were previously not in service to be brought back into use, with certain maintenance undertaken that had not been financially viable prior to the dynamic shift in the market,” Yusuf adds. The changing product mix also means that internal piping had to be reconfigured to ensure full separation of different products. Loading, particularly onto road tankers, had to be set up to ensure dedicated lines. As a result, all stored products, including products blended on site, can be loaded without the risk of cross-contamination. One task that DBTL had already been working on was the acquisition of an excise licence alongside its existing customs warehouse licence that it has had since its inception. With the excise licence it can now deliver product directly through the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS). “Although we are currently in the piloting phase and only using the system on blended product for a specific client, our team is now fully capable of handling this digital government portal for products of any kind,” Yusuf says. “Our terminal team and senior management are certainly humbled by the success our terminals have and are benefitting from this year,” Yusuf concludes. “But we also hope for a return to business continuity and normalcy for our direct industry and all other industries as quickly as it is safe to do so.” globaltlog.com/terminals/
