As seismic shifts are happening in the global geopolitical and economic landscape, a panel of experts at StocExpo 2026 looked at how these could impact product flows and how the tank storage industry may respond.
Ramon Ernst, integration leader at Curoil, looked at how the landscape keeps constantly shifting. ‘Two months ago, all we talked about was Venezuela,’ he said. ‘Now we are only talking about the Middle East. Sometimes in Europe, we can look too inward – we see now how we are impacted by everything else in the world.’
This was echoed by Patrick Kulsen, CEO at Insight Global. ‘This is a very volatile situation,’ he said. ‘There has been a chain of events which has left Europe vulnerable, even more than the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Options and optionality are key. We have fewer options now than in 2022 as we have shut down oil supply from Russia. There is the US, but that will come at a high price. So there isn’t currently much to be glad about in Europe – if this war continues for a long time, we will be in big trouble!’
However, the panellists were optimistic that there were potential solutions.
‘Could we build optionality into terminals?’ asked Ramon. ‘They are built for the long-term, with long-term investment. And they are static. But we need to think about how to cater for different product flows. It will cost more to build a terminal that can store both oil and gas, for example, but it will be worth it as you shield yourself from volatility. We need to think differently about using the assets we have going forward.’
Patrick agreed that a shift to more strategic storage was key. ‘The world is changing and risks have increased,’ he said. ‘In terms of supply disruptions – we’re seeing one right now and we should have been prepared. And one way to manage supply disruption is to have more strategic storage.’
Monica Hildinger, Co-CEO at OpenTAS, spoke on how strategic competition and conflict result in sanctions and difficulties with compliance. ‘Customs compliance is one of the trends we see coming,’ she said. ‘The change in through products and flows means different customs requirements are needed to export the product. If I look at operations and agility, we are looking at short term rather than long term. For customs compliance, we are increasingly seeing the higher complexity of requirements.’
Patrick finished on an upbeat note: ‘The current landscape for tank storage is pretty positive. We will continue to need hydrocarbons to keep our lives going, and we will need the infrastructure to facilitate that.’
