What is the structure of Vopak Horizon?
Vopak Horizon Fujairah Limited (VHFL) is a joint venture of five partners including Vopak, ENOC-Horizon, The Government of Fujairah, Vitol and IPG. It is a storage terminal for bulk liquid storage of chemicals, oils and petroleum products.

What is the function of VHFL in Fujairah?
Vopak manages the terminal, which is one of the 72 terminals in 29 countries that the company owns and operates. We are the largest terminal operator in the world and have our headquarters in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Vopak brings to VHFL its vast experience and expertise gained from four hundred years of operations.

Does VHFL only do bunkering or supply products as well?
At Fujairah, VHFL operates 1.1 million cubic meters of oil storage facilities, in about 39 tanks, which are suitable to store oils ranging from black products to light products such as fuel oil, gas oil, gasoline, jet fuel, naphtha, etc.

What is the main business of VHFL in Fujairah?
The facilities and services offered to VHFL customers include storage, chemical additions, blending and heating, in order to store the oil correctly. The company also loads and discharges the ships containing stored oil. As an independent operator, we are the only company here to provide storage services to our customers.

What are the ISO and HSE procedures followed at the terminal?
Vopak’s Safety Health Environment (SHE) standards are followed very strictly and we comply with every SHE requirement in all our operations, including tank-cleaning procedures.

How did you get to know about Dulsco and the tank-cleaning services that we offer?
We have been using Dulsco manpower for various purposes for the past seven years. In 2004, Dulsco East Coast approached us with tank-cleaning services and we tried them out. Since then we have been employing Dulsco tank cleaners to de-sludge and clean storage tanks in our terminal.

How has Dulsco performed on the various projects and the HSE aspect of the jobs at the terminal?
Dulsco tank-cleaning personnel are very efficient and professional in their work. They follow the strict SHE standards of Vopak when working in confined spaces. Dulsco’s safety standards are also high and the personnel are well aware of the same, making it easy to train them for Vopak SHE procedures. One example was how they learnt and successfully used the external breathing system in the newly introduced safety containers.

About twenty-five tank-cleaning personnel of Dulsco work on a semi-regular basis at VHFL. We consider Dulsco as a serious partner in our business and find that Dulsco tank-cleaners are doing a great job. We are also happy that the Dulsco East Coast Manager and other staff members are always ready to help us, often at short notice.

What is in store for Dulsco in the future? And why?
By mid 2007 VHFL intends to add ten tanks and two more berths to its present facility and that should mean more work for Dulsco. Since Dulsco provides us with excellent service, we in turn are able to offer exceptional service to our clients, so we think this relationship is going to last a long time.