Trafigura Forms JV with Spain's Meroil for Refined Oil Products, Biofuels

Trafigura Forms JV with Spain's Meroil for Refined Oil Products, Biofuels
The joint venture aims to provide logistics and distribution of oil products and biofuels on both the national and international markets.
Image by AvigatorPhotographer via iStock

Commodity trading giant Trafigura has completed the acquisition of 50 percent of equity in Meroil Tank S.L. from Spanish oil operator Meroil S.A. for an undisclosed sum.

Meroil Tank will now operate as a 50:50 joint venture company with assets that include 356,000 cubic meters of refined oil products storage infrastructure within the port of Barcelona. The company will continue to serve its current as well as future customers to store refined oil products, including gasoil, gasoline and jet fuel, as well as biofuels, Trafigura said in a news release.

The joint venture aims to provide logistics and distribution of oil products and biofuels on both the national and international markets.

“We are delighted to join forces with Meroil, a prominent logistics provider and wholesale fuel operator in Barcelona,” Jamie Torrance, Trafigura Global Head of Distillates, said. “The asset is integral for the import of refined products and biofuels in the region; offering advanced logistics and flexibility to our current and future customer base. We look forward to working with the Meroil team on the further development of the terminal’s logistics, while staying attentive to the market’s evolution towards low-carbon fuels”.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with a world-leading company in the oil trading sector; this collaboration will significantly enhance the development of our business in Spain," Meroil President José Luís Porté said.

Meroil has a network of service stations with a presence throughout the territory, providing products for fleets of ships, commercial airlines, and industry. Meroil has the largest coastal terminal in Spain for the storage of oil products and biofuels, connected to the national pipeline system, according to the release.

Founded in 1993, Meroil was the first independent operator of Spain’s oil sector. Its founding shareholders were individuals or companies owning small networks of service stations or distributors, primarily located in the area of Catalonia.

The company is also investing in renewable energy production by developing photovoltaic generation parks.

Trafigura describes itself as a leading commodities group, owned by its employees and founded over 30 years ago. The company deploys infrastructure, market expertise and its worldwide logistics network to move oil and petroleum products, metals and minerals, gas and power.

The Trafigura Group also comprises industrial assets and operating businesses including multi-metals producer Nyrstar, fuel storage and distribution company Puma Energy, the Impala Terminals joint venture company and Greenergy, a supplier and distributor of transportation fuels and biofuels.

Trafigura said it invests in renewable energy projects and technologies to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy, including through H2Energy Europe and joint venture Nala Renewables. 

In January, Trafigura agreed to purchase carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR) credits from a Texas project of 1PointFive, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp. The emission offsets will come from a project called Stratos, 1PointFive’s first industrial-scale direct air capture (DAC) facility currently under construction in Texas.

According to 1PointFive, Stratos is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of CO2 annually when fully operational and is expected to be the largest facility of its kind in the world. 1PointFive describes itself as a carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) company working to help curb global temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2050 through the deployment of decarbonization solutions, including Carbon Engineering's DAC and Air To Fuels technology solutions alongside geologic sequestration hubs.

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