Eco-Energy, NuStar to develop ethanol train and storage facility in US

NuStar Terminals Operations Partnership and Eco-Energy have announced that the companies will be joining forces to co-develop an ethanol unit train and storage facility to cater to the markets of Northern Virginia and California.

As per the agreement, the companies will develop solutions for unloading, storing, and loading ethanol on the outbound trucks at
NuStar’s Virginia based Dumfries facility and each company will carry out its own development, construction and refurbishment costs.

NuStar Marketing and Business Development senior vice president Danny Oliver said the company will be able to deliver ethanol more quickly and cost-effectively to the growing market.

"This is a great project for the partners, the bio-fuel producers and the end users," Oliver added.

The ethanol unit train terminal will have storage capacity of about 155,000 barrels of ethanol and can distribute more than 400,000 barrels every month.

The Dumfries facility will offer 24 hours access to the product and will use about 96 rail car units from CSX Transportation with 24/36 hour turnaround time.

Eco-Energy CFO and COO Gwaine Ton said the project reflects how multiple partners like the company, NuStar and CSX can work together to develop a long-term supply chain solution that benefits bio-fuel producers and end users.

"We continue to execute on our terminal strategy and the site will be open for utilization by both producers and end users seeking to effectively distribute bio-fuels in the region," Ton added.

Operations at the Dumfries, VA site are expected to commence in the third quarter of 2013.

US based NuStar Energy is asphalt refinery and marketer and operator of petroleum product terminals and petroleum liquids pipelines.

Eco-Energy, an integrated bio-fuel supply chain company, is focused on the marketing and distribution of bio-fuels.