ODEC expands and invests for the future

One of the biggest actors and operational at Port of Södertälje’s oil terminal is ODEC Tankstorage AB. ODEC is an independent storage company that since 1995 has hired out fuel cisterns at port. The company has now commenced the installation of new cisterns to increase the handling of fuel volumes in this fast-growing region.

ODEC is operational in three Swedish ports, Södertälje, Gothenburg and Helsingborg. Port of Södertälje is the company’s biggest operation with tanker vessels arriving daily to fill ODEC’s cisterns. Fuel is then transported by either boat or tanker truck to customers throughout the region. ODEC has eight cisterns that can hold 39 000 cubic meters of fuel. The company is now installing a new cistern with a capacity of 6 000 cubic meters which will be ready for use in 2016 and also adapted to handle renewable fuel.

- The fuel that we handle today is for the most part renewable, says Martin Oscarsson, managing director of ODEC Tankstorage. It is important that we develop our capacity to suit the customers needs and at present the need of storing renewable fuel is great. We’ll also wait and see how things develop when the two large Stockholm oil depots close.

The handling of fuel makes high demands on safety. On the question of the risks involved in the transport and storage of such large amounts of fuel Martin assures that safety measures are at a very high level.

- Of course it sounds a bit daunting when talking about the transport and storage of thousands of tons of extremely volatile fuel, says Martin. But we are confident of how intensive and thorough the measures we have taken regarding safety. We often meet in association with other fuel storage actors to learn from each other in the prevention of accidents. I must say that Port of Södertälje is very thorough with their safety measures and has made large investments in this area.

Port of Södertälje today holds a permit to handle 1,2 million tons of fuel. An application for an enhanced permit to handle 2,2 million tons is now under review. This will enormously increase capacity and secure fuel supplies to the Stockholm region via Södertälje instead of Stockholm and Nacka.

- We are very interested of further developing operations here. We have the land area that we can both develop and expand when necessary. The location is perfect with a close proximity to the capital and easily accessible communications systems, concludes Martin.