Royal Vopak New Storage Terminal, Port of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dutch storage facilities provider Royal Vopak is constructing a new storage terminal at the Port of Amsterdam to cover the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region. The terminal will be accessible over water through the North Sea canal and by road through Westpoortweg.

Vopak announced its decision to develop and operate a new storage terminal for oil products at the Port of Amsterdam in May 2009. BAM Leidingen & Industrie, an operating company of Royal BAM group will construct the terminal. Construction of the project's first phase of 620,000m³ is expected to be completed by the second half of 2011.

Vopak decided to build its second oil terminal in the Port of Amsterdam in 2006. The company's first terminal in Amsterdam specialises in storage and trans-shipment of vessel fuels. The new terminal will be used for storing gasoline and other oil products such as biofuels, gas oil and diesel shipped from Germany, among other countries.

Vopak has been allocated 35ha of land in Westpoort that forms the western part of Afrikahaven Harbour. The company signed an agreement with Amsterdam Port Authority to this effect in June 2006.

Design and infrastructure

The terminal will have a storage capacity of 1.1 million m³ and a maximum throughput of 20 million m³ per annum. It will store, blend and handle gasoline and other clean oil products and their components.

The terminal will include a facility for blending products and components; a coupling system to connect the pier's pipes leading to the tanks; a vapour processing and a pipe cleaning system; a wastewater purification plant; and a fire extinguishing system. It will also have 11 berths at two finger piers, a quay and a harbour basin (the Mauritiushaven).

The terminal has been designed for 41storage tanks and six slob tanks, pipelines, two jetties and two quays. Tanks will have capacities of 10,000m³, 20,000m³ and 40,000m³, with a height of around 22.5m.

The two jetties will be capable of handling 120,000dwt vessels. Eight berths will be constructed to handle vessels, coasters and inland barges with a capacity of up to 20,000dwt.

Liquids will be transported from the terminal to the US by tankers and to European countries by inland vessels.

New development to meet demand

Vopak's existing terminal in Amsterdam has a capacity of 84.5m³. It has 21 mild steel tanks that handle petroleum and oil products. The terminal is wholly owned by Vopak.

Vopak has taken up the construction of the second terminal to meet the increasing demand for storage facilities for gasoline, gas, oil, diesel oil and biofuels in Northwest Europe. The Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region is a significant transit area for products such as gasoline. The Port of Amsterdam is a gasoline storage centre in Northwest Europe and components required for blending oil products of varied qualities are present at the port.

Environmentally friendly systems

Vopak submitted the project's environmental impact assessment and planning applications to the Noord-Holland Provincial council during September 2007.

The terminal will have a vapour processing system installed to process vapour released on loading vessels. Vessels that are not equipped with couplings to connect to vapour processing installation will be rejected by the terminal. The terminal is the first one in Amsterdam to have a vapour processing installation.

A floating roof and domed roof to be installed along with a storage tank will minimise emissions from volatile organic compounds.

The floating roof will reduce evaporation, and the domed roof will safeguard the construction from rainwater, wind turbulence and solar radiation. The leak detection systems under the tank and to all pipes will be fixed.

A wastewater purification system is also being installed at the terminal to remove contaminants from oil water.