Aegean's New African Development -
The Port of Tanger Med in Morocco
by J.J. METEY | Head of Cargo Trading
Despite the global economic crisis, Aegean made a new agreement
for a serious presence in the Port of Tangiers, further reinforcing its
position in the region.
Aegean Marine Petroleum
Network Inc. announced at
the end of August that it has
commenced operations in Tangiers,
Morocco. The new port of Tangiers
is an important gateway that serves
the vast Mediterranean and North
African regions and is well positioned
for strong growth. Including Tangiers,
Aegean has a presence in 14 strategic
markets worldwide, representing an
increase of 180% since going public in
December 2006.
Morocco
Morocco is located in Northern Africa
bordering the Mediterranean Sea
to the North and the Atlantic Ocean
to the West. It is officially known as
the Kingdom of Morocco; it covers
446,550 sq kilometres and has an
estimated population of 33,000,000.
(2006).
Morocco has always been a crossroads
between Africa, Europe and
the Middle East and it evokes this
sense even more in Tangiers, where
Morocco's government has planned
building a major port in the Strait of
Gibraltar.
The Project
One of the largest container terminals
in the Mediterranean, Tanger
Med is able to host the largest next
generation of container vessels. The project was instigated by the new
King, Mohamed VI, who sees the region
and its strategic location as central
to the country and as a gateway
to Mediterranean development. This
project aims at the construction of
four deep water container terminals,
offering a capacity of 8, 5 million
TEU in two ports.
It is managed by the Tanger-Med
Special Agency (TMSA) a state-controlled
agency endowed with public
prerogatives, solely dedicated to the
implementation of the project and
a strategic priority for the economic
and social development of the North
of Morocco.
It will also win part of the strong
growth market of container transhipment
and become the leading hub for
cereal transhipment, a facility which
is non-existent in the north-west African
region at present.
The concept is to use the port’s
location to attract shipping traffic that
flows between east and west, passing
through the Strait of Gibraltar.
By leveraging the port, the hope is
to turn the region into a transit and
logistics hub; a zone also designed
to attract international manufacturers
to build and export, where goods
moving between Asia, Europe and
the U.S. can be packed or assembled.
TMSA licensed national and international
consortiums such as Comanav, AEGEAN NEWS ΑUTUMN 2009
the national line, with their partners
Eurogate, MSC and CMA CGM etc.
TMSA can already claim one highprofile
success. Renault announced
a €600m (£449m, $880m) project to
build a factory in Tanger Med’s industrial
zone with the capacity to produce
200,000 cars a year from 2010, and
eventually up to 400,000 a year.
The Port
The port itself will consist of eight
terminals: four container terminals,
a petroleum terminal, a Ro-Ro terminal,
a Bulk terminal, and a passenger
terminal. The first container terminal
(TC1), operated by a Consortium of
Danish company AP Moeller Maersk
and Morocco’s Akwa Group has an
800-meter quay, a land platform of
46 ha and a capacity of 1.5 million
containers. The second container
terminal (TC2) operated by Eurogate-
Contship and MSC and CGA-CGM,
respectively the world’s second and
third largest container shipping companies,
has an 812-meter quay, a land
platform of 40 ha and a capacity of 1.5
million containers.
Tanger Med II, the new extension
project, was officially launched on
June 17, 2009. The construction works
for Tanger Med II will be carried out
in two phases: the first phase involves
the completion of one of the terminal
(terminal 4), equivalent to nearly half
the total extension capacity (2.2 millions
TEUs) and quay length (1,200
meters). Construction of Terminal
3,with a 3 million TEU capacity and
a 1,600 meters quay length, will be
launched according to capacity demand
from global operators in the
region. The concession agreement of
Terminal 4 was awarded to Morocco’s
port operator Marsa Maroc, which
will achieve an expected 320 million
Euros worth of investments in supersrtuctures
and equipment.
Port Layout
The aim is that Tanger Med and the
port's container activities will be complemented
by a series of free zones to
be deployed over 5 000 hectares, which
will develop the country's import and
export capacity. Tanger Med Port activities
started on July 27, 2007 with
the opening of Tanger Med Port 1
first container terminal. As far as
port infrastructure is concerned, it
is built according to the joint use of
the rubble-mound breakwater and
reinforced concrete caissons breakwater
techniques. This strengthens the
port protection
from rough seas and
allows an optimal use of the basin’s
surface while providing the vessels
with the possibility to berth alongside
the jetty.
A primary and secondary breakwater
A 300 m wide access channel, dredged
to 17.00m
A 600m diameter turning circle
dredged to 16.00m
A harbor basin of 100 Ha.
Two oil jetties for 60kt DWT and
120kt DWT max dredged to 17.00m
Oil Storage Facilities
Horizon Tangiers Terminal SA (HTTSA)
a consortium of Horizon Terminals
Limited, an ENOC subsidiary,
Kuwait-based Independent Petroleum
Group (IPG) and Morocco’s Afriquia
SMDC, were awarded, by TMSA in
2006, the concession to build and operate
an oil storage facility.
With its strategic location at the entrance
to the Mediterranean and excellent
connections to Europe, Tanger
Med port is set to emerge as a major
transhipment and refuelling hub in
the global movement of ships.
Currently, the building of three
oil storage facilities is underway,
one
of which, of 218,000m3, will
be used
exclusively for bunkering activities.
These facilities have
been designed
in accordance
with European and
American standards, except where
Moroccan standards prevail.
Aegean Marine Petroleum
Aegean Marine Petroleum has been
selected to be the Bunker supplier
and
will have access to the above storage
capacity which is linked to
the oil jetties
by pipeline, enabling it to import up to
600 cts of fuel oil with blending facilities
designated for bunkering purposes.
Aegean Marine Petroleum is very
well positioned to commercialize bunkers
in this new harbor and offshore.
Aegean Marine Petroleum will have
the possibility of supplying as ‘a sole
supplier’ within the port perimeter and
supplying offshore the Northern part
of Morocco. The forecast is that 7,000
vessels per annum will be calling at
the Tanger Med 1 harbor and a further
10,000 ships calling at Tanger Med
2 in the near future. Our dedicated
barges will also supply the passing
vessels from the anchorage areas situated
nearby the new port. The product
delivered will meet all ISO 8217:2005
Standards and we will concentrate
mostly on LSFO, with a max content of
1.5% Sulfur and turn Tanger Med into
a LSFO platform for ships going North
within the SECA area.
Aegean will also be able to provide, by
bulk and drums, the supply of its own
lubricant brand ‘Alfa’ within the area,
optimizing the global demand of any
ship transiting through the area.
