Leading terminal operators from across the globe shares their highlights of 2023, with a peek into what the forecast for 2024 looks like. Here’s what Ulf Vleeshowers, CEO of V-Tank Storage, has to say…
V-Tank Storage’s biggest achievements in 2023 have been that we signed a number of Cooperation Agreements with tank terminals in the Nordics, Baltics, UK, Europe, Asia, USA, UAE and the Caribbean. As a ‘new start with 200+ years of experience in the bulk liquid storage industry’, it’s encouraging that these tank terminals have put us at the forefront as their marketing, arm in order to rent out storage space at their terminals.
We have been lucky as we mainly have been on search for these Cooperation Agreements with terminals in order to market their storage space. So, we have avoided the typical challenges in the tank market this year – i.e. high cost for energy to keep tanks heated, high inflation
with increasing prices and, on top of all that, the strongly backward oil market, meaning companies have been holding as little product in tanks as possible.
Continuing With What Works
To know the future is more or less impossible, and especially within the energy market. We in V-Tank Storage will continue to make Cooperation Agreements with terminals in order to be able to offer potential clients more storage locations around the world.
If we do end up in a recession, it may – strangely enough – actually be a possibility for tank terminals to fill their tanks, as the oil market often goes from backwardation into contango in a
recession. This means there is a surplus of oil products, compared with the consumption at that stage – so the tanks are being filled up.
At the moment, we feel that there are more vague ideas, rather than concrete steps and initiatives when it comes to the energy transition in the storage sector. We would like to see more advancement in digitalisation across the tank sector, to give clients the most efficient and optimal solutions as possible.
