Vopak Fujairah tanks fully leased

Oil storage tank operator Vopak said all of its tanks in the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah are currently leased.

"We're fully occupied," an official at Vopak, the world's largest independent storage tank operator, told Reuters on Sunday, requesting anonymity. All tanks are storing oil products, he said.

Dutch-based Vopak has 48 tanks in Fujairah, one of the world's three largest bunkering ports along with Singapore and Rotterdam, with capacity totaling 1.5 million cubic meters (cu m).

Vopak said another 600,000 cubic meteres of storage now under construction is set to come onstream by end-2011 and has already been leased out to customers. The new tanks are leased to BP, ConocoPhillips and Litasco, Russian oil company Lukoil's trading arm, two trade sources said.

Fujairah port has total storage capacity of around 3 million cu m and is located on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, 70 miles from the Straits of Hormuz.

The port's storage capacity is rising quickly. Others adding capacity include Singapore-listed Chemoil, with plans to boost  capacity to 675,000 cu m from a current 90,000 cubic meters.

Vitol, the world's largest oil trading firm, also has more than 1 million cu m of Fujairah port storage capacity through its joint venture VTTI.