Private UAE midstream firm Brooge Petroleum and Gas Investment Company (BGPIC) announced at a ceremony in Dubai on 16 September the start of construction of the second phase of its storage facility in the emirate of Fujairah.

BGPIC also formally signed the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for phase 2 with Audex, a subsidiary of Singaporean contractor PEC, although the deal had been awarded earlier this year.

MEED had previously reported that BGPIC was looking to expand its storage complex in Fujairah by 600,000 cubic metres of capacity for crude oil across eight tanks.

Phase 2 of the facility, when commissioned in the first quarter of 2020, will take Fujairah-based BGPIC’s total storage capacity to 1 million cubic metres.

Phase 1 of BGPIC’s storage facility, which was completed in October last year, began operating from January with a capacity of 400,000 cubic metres.

Audex was also the main contractor for the project’s first phase.

PEC in a disclosure to the Singapore stock exchange on 11 September said it had recently won contracts worth $250m from existing clients in the Middle East and Singapore, although it did not reveal the value of the BGPIC phase 2 deal.

BGPIC’s CEO Nicolaas Paardenkooper told MEED at the announcement event in Dubai that the new crude storage facility will have a lifespan of 50 years, a duration much higher than the industry average.

In a major announcement, BGPIC said it was planning to float 40 per cent of its share capital on the London Stock Exchange through an initial public offering (IPO) in October.

The company intends to raise $400m from UAE and foreign investors in the IPO, to be conducted in a single tranche.

BGPIC has already secured strategic investors and plans a roadshow in the US and across Europe soon.

The firm was looking at a range of financing options for the project, including loans from banks, Paardenkooper said.