The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is to start work on a new terminal that will help ease fuel problems in the northern UAE.
Queues at an ADNOC gas station Image: Bettyx1138 |
The terminal will be built in the free zone port of Hamriyah in Sharjah and will increase fuel storage in the port by 60% with its 241,000m³ capacity. The construction contract has been handed to Takreer, the Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company and will include a jetty for oil product offloading.
ADNOC, which has been transporting fuel to the poorer areas of northern UAE for many years using road tankers. However, the new terminal will dramatically enhance the shipping process and allow it to bypass Dubai to provide significant volume to a fuel-hungry region. The fuel will be used for both power and transport - gas stations are often subject to long queues in the region due to the currently poor supply chain.
The facility will allow ADNOC to take advantage of the withdrawal from the area of Dubai-based EDNOC which had been, according to reports, running at a loss for some years due to UAEs low fixed fuel prices while having to buy from international markets. ADNOC, on the other hand, can provide fuel at lower costs thanks to its substantial upstream operations in Abu Dhabi.