The press release of PennEnergy says,
BP Begins Shipping Crude Oil Along Trans-Panama Pipeline
February 6, 2012 [PennEnergy] - BP Products North America Inc. announced today that it has started shipping crude oil bound for the U.S. West Coast through Petroterminal de Panama (PTP)’s trans-Panama pipeline, marking the start of a seven-year transportation and storage agreement between BP and PTP.
Under the terms of the agreement, BP has leased a total of 5.4 million barrels of PTP’s storage located on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Panama and committed to east-to-west crude oil shipments averaging 100,000 barrels per day through PTP’s trans-Panama pipeline.
Crude oil tankers too large to navigate the Panama Canal sail around Cape Horn in South America to reach the US West Coast. Under the new agreement, BP-chartered Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) can now sail to the Caribbean port of Chiriqui Grande where the oil will be stored and piped to the Pacific coast port of Charco Azul and loaded on tankers bound for the West Coast.
The presence of onshore storage on the Panamanian coasts also provides for crude oil blending and optimized cargo volume and delivery window to meet individual refiners’ needs. For example, BP’s dedicated crude oil storage at these ports can help West Coast refineries reduce demurrage costs associated with having VLCCs waiting in port for prolonged periods while discharging crude into limited tankage.
“BP’s ability to utilize new dedicated tankage at terminals on both coasts and the reversed pipeline will provide U.S. West Coast refiners with more diverse and flexible supply options, and also grow our business in Latin America. This overland route greatly reduces transit times and lowers freight costs for many of our customers,” said Paul Reed, chief executive of BP’s integrated supply and trading organization at a commissioning ceremony today in Panama City. “This is also good news for Panama. It creates new jobs on both coasts of the pipeline bringing increased prosperity to the region.”
Today’s ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Panamanian government, and senior executives from BP, PTP, Northville Industries, who are the managing partner of PTP, and other local businesses.
Source: TankTerminals.com
More on this topic
October 2009
Petroterminal de Panama awarded a contract in excess of $100 million to CB&I, to engineer, procure and construct the Phase 2 expansion of the Trans-Panama Pipeline facilities.
The work scope includes the design and construction of 5.4 million barrels of crude oil storage and the associated civil, mechanical and electrical work at PTP's terminal facilities in Chiriqui Grande on Panama's Atlantic coast, and Puerto Armuelles on the Pacific coast. CB&I, which built the original PTP storage tanks in the late 1970s, was awarded the EPC contract for Phase 1 of the expansion project in May 2008.
December 2008
Crude oil refiner Tesoro Corp announced an agreement with Petroterminal de Panama, allowing it to transport crude oil from the Atlantic region through Panama to its Pacific refineries.
PTP has announced a project that will reverse the flow of its 81-mile trans-Panamanian pipeline.
November 2008
British Petroleum is negotiating with Petroterminales of Panama to move crude oil from the Caribbean coast in Bocas del Toro to the Pacific area of Chiriqui using the pipeline.
Mauricio Ruiz of British Petroleum (BP) said yesterday that the project is very important for the company because they have had to make adjustments as the world supply and demand dynamic changes, since the oil for the refineries on the US east coast no longer come from Alaska but from Western Africa.
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