Alsaa, E3 partner on UAE storage venture

OREANDA-NEWS. Dubai-based trading companies E3 Energy and Alsaa Petroleum & Shipping are partnering on an 80,000m? storage venture for oil products and petrochemicals in the UAE's Hamriyah free zone in Sharjah.

The 50:50 joint venture, Premier Products, will have four tanks totalling 38,000m? of clean products such as gasoil, gasoline and naphtha, two tanks totalling 18,000m? for fuel oil and 12 tanks totalling 24,000m? for petrochemicals. The company has built-in pipelines to transfer bulk products from tankers to the storage tanks and facilities for blending and loading on to tankers and refilling to drums.

"Our jetty pumps have the capacity to load at 750m?/hr, against the typical 200-250m?/hr loading rate in Hamriya," said Premier Products director Siby Antony.

The tanks have been commissioned and will be ready for storage in early March. "We have already started trial runs of the tanks using petroleum products and expect to start storage and blending operations by 1 March," Antony said.