Company refutes oil storage site sale fear (From Western Telegraph)

Company refutes oil storage site sale fear

FEARS that the Dutch-owned company Petroplus is to sell its Waterston site have been denied.

Petroplus, which took over the Gulf refinery six years ago, have been providing storage facilities for petroleum and oil products for other companies.

Planning consent is currently being sought for a £200 million liquified natural gas storage and regasification project at Waterston.

Work has already began on clearing the site and, if everything goes according to plan, construction work on the storage tanks will begin at the end of the year.

But latest reports say that Petroplus has made a net loss of 42 million euros and that the company intends to sell a substantial part of the LNG project in Wales to a strategic investor.

However, Pembrokeshire's Petroplus spokesman Derek Lloyd said: "The net loss is basically a special write down against the closure of Petroplus' Antwerp refinery. And the intended sale refers to the fact that we have been in discussion for some time with possible partners for the LNG scheme.

"These partners would not only source the LNG, but would also have a market for it. We would provide the storage facilities at Waterston." It is anticipated that an announcement over the go ahead for the project will be made within a few weeks.