Danish-based global bunker supplier and tanker specialist, Monjasa, expands further into the US Gulf, following five years of maritime operations in the Port of Houston. The company expands its existing Port of Houston bunkering operations to also include the wider offshore US Gulf region.
As part of this new operation, Monjasa has agreed the charter terms for the 16,626-dwt tanker, Stenheim from Norwegian Rederiet Stenersen AS.
The company says the deal starts with immediate effect.
The news came to light yesterday with a social media post in LinkedIn and with a statement in the company’s website.
The 2003-built Gibraltar-flagged ship Stenheim is SIRE vetted and brings an experienced crew, as Monjasa claims, when it comes to handling ship-to-ship bunkering operations in the US Gulf environment.
Monjasa, which operates some 35 vessels worldwide and supplies around 6.5m tonnes of marine fuels yearly, will start supplying very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) and marine gas oil (MGO) from the Stenheim tanker.
The company already operates three barges across the Greater Houston Area and currently delivers 35,000-40,000 metric tonnes of marine fuels monthly.
The Port of Houston continues to grow its importance as trade gateway for the state of Texas, and the U.S. as a whole and recent years of infrastructure developments have led to more larger vessels calling the port and increased cargo volumes.
Monjasa says its new offshore US Gulf operation focuses primarily on the larger vessel segments across the oil, chemical and gas tankers that cannot necessarily access the bunkering locations in the Houston Ship Channel.
“We are building on our local knowledge and strong supplier partnerships to add further flexibility for the increasing ship traffic in the area,” noted trading manager Americas, Anastasios Manalis.
The bunker supplier specialist expects key supply locations to include Galveston Offshore Lightering Area (GOLA), Southwest Pass (SWP), South Sabine Pass and Offshore Corpus Christi.
