SOHAR Port and Freezone and TFG Marine, have signed an MoU agreement during International Energy Week in London to establish an international bunker fuel supply operation within the deep-sea port.
The port is strategically located at the city of Sohar, Sultanate of Oman, close to the main shipping routes connecting the Gulf and the Indian subcontinent with the rest of the world.
Today’s agreement reconfirms SOHAR Port’s commitment to build a digitalized and transparent bunker operation that meets international standards already introduced in Singapore and soon to be implemented in Rotterdam. This will enable TFG Marine to establish an international bunker fuel supply operation at SOHAR Port and to offer all grades of bunker fuel to vessels.
..Emile Hoogsteden, CEO of SOHAR Port said.
The port’s anchorage areas are located within 4 to 10 nautical miles offshore. With a depth of between 30 to 60 meters, more than 3,000 vessels of all sizes currently call at the port each year. This will increase as TFG Marine will be able to refuel the fleet of its joint venture owners, Trafigura, Frontline and Golden Ocean, which collectively manage a fleet of more than 700 owned and chartered vessels, as well as third party vessels.
TFG Marine intends to start deliveries with a local operating company with its first bunker vessel arriving at SOHAR Port in the coming months. The vessel will be fitted with a Mass Flow Meter (MFM), calibrated to the ISO 22192 international standard as required by SOHAR Port.
TFG Marine has long been an advocate of the global adoption of calibrated MFMs to bring much-needed transparency to bunkering and encouraging digitalisation in the long-term interests of the bunker industry and helping to further the decarbonisation goals of the shipping industry.
