GENEVA-BASED trader Gunvor had taken up its first clean oil storage tanks in Asia at the Sinochem-Gree terminal in southern China, as it eyed a slice of the regional products trade, company and port sources said yesterday.

Gunvor, rated the world’s No. 3 crude oil trading firm by volume, had taken about 50,000 cubic meters of storage for gas oil at a facility in Zhuhai, a terminal source said, bolstering its fuel storage capacity in Asia by more than 30 percent.

“Yes, we have had them (Gunvor) here, now about three months plus... and they are storing gas oil,” the Zhuhai-based terminal source told reporters.

The tank lease in China is expected to strengthen Gunvor’s ambitions to expand its global operations including in Asia, the Middle East and West Africa, where it recently signed a contract to buy oil from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and is eyeing exploration in that region.

The company has secured US$6.5 billion in credit lines to fund its operations and expansions, including outside Russia.

The addition of the new China-based clean tanks would raise the company’s total Asian storage capacity to 150,000-200,000 cubic meters, traders said.

“This is clearly a sign that they are ready to go shoulder-to-shoulder to cash in on the strong demand for gas oil in this region, and they are making all the right moves by putting in place the right infrastructure here,” a Singapore-based middle distillates trader said.

(SD-Agencies)