Storage & Blending
Phase I requires an $800 million investment for the development, construction and start-up operations of a 20 million barrel-capacity multi-purpose bulk liquid/petroleum products storage terminal, expected to be completed in 2014. The storage facility will be used as a holding area for forwarding crude oil deliveries to North America and as a “break-bulk” point for transshipment operations. Transshipment from larger tankers into small shuttle vessels is carried out manifold-to-manifold across the sea island. Larger tankers, thus lightered, can then also proceed to shallow draught ports.
As the Caribbean is made up of relatively small islands with small ports, with limited sizes of liquid bulk tanks, logistics with small vessels makes delivery complicated and expensive. As demand for fuels has increased, there has become a great need for large volume liquid bulk storage terminals as strategic hubs with high throughputs for the suppliers of various products.
The advantage for suppliers will be that they can store high volumes by using large vessels and can distribute it from the terminal everywhere they want all over the Caribbean or to the US East Coast and Gulf region. The terminal development of Mid Atlantic Energy will fill a needed shortage in the Caribbean and US East Coast and Gulf region.
Construction
The oil storage construction will be carried out by VerWater Group, one of the most highly regarded tank constructing companies in the world. They employ a unique and innovative tank construction design using jacking technology to place the tank rings from top to bottom, rather than bottom to top. The bottom of the tank is placed on a stable foundation of crushed stone that is higher than the lowest level of the tank pit, deterring rainwater corrosion. When maintenance is needed, the jacking technology is employed again, by lifting the tank in order to do the necessary maintenance on the tank bottom and for stabilizing the foundation of crushed stones. See examples of their process here:
