Preparations complete for storage of Russian crude oil in the Port of Göteborg

The Port of Göteborg has been granted an environmental permit by the local authorities for the transit handling and storage of Russian crude oil in an underground cavern close to the port and the crude oil jettys. Operations are expected to commence at the end of next year.

"We are very pleased to have been granted consent after three years. The role of the Port of Göteborg as an important oil hub for the Baltic Region has now been strengthened," says Åsa Burman, Vice President of the Port of Göteborg and head of the Oil Harbour.

The background is that Russia is shipping out more and more oil, crude oil as well as oil products  via the Baltic, where there are draft restrictions limiting the vessel sizes. To move the oil on it needs to be reloaded onto larger vessels.

Transit handling and storage currently takes place at the larger continental ports, or 'ship-to-ship' at sea. The permit applies for the additional handling of eight million tonnes of crude oil each year.

This represents a doubling of the crude oil volume handled at the Port of Göteborg. Storage would be at one of the underground caverns at Syrhåla, near the port. When it was completed at the end of the 1970s the underground storage facility at Syrhåla was the world's largest. Each of the four caverns is 800,000 cubic metres in size.

Scandinavian Tank Storage (STS), a Port of Göteborg customer, can now seriously enter into discussions with its end-customer. Before traffic can get under way, however, the pier needs to be upgraded with a recycling facility for the gases emitted during loading along with new pipework and a control room.

For further information, please contact Åsa Burman, tel. +46 31-731 2707.