Aquarius Energy acquires 37% stake in Saldanha Bay crude oil terminal

The Glencore-Tristar joint venture Aquarius Energy completed a purchase of a 37% stake in the 10 million barrel Saldanha Bay crude oil storage and blending site, Quantum Commodity Intelligence reported online on Friday.

Aquarius bought the stake from Oiltanking, a company which, an online search showed is owned by the privately held energy and chemicals company Marquard & Bahls AG, which operates petroleum product terminals in 23 countries, and the terminal has been renamed to Aquarius MOGS Saldanha (AQMS).

Saldanha Bay is strategically located between the Atlantic Basin and the Indian Ocean, which is a major shipping route for crude oil cargoes, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic when a global oversupply of oil appeared almost overnight.

Quantum Commodity Intelligence reported that the utility could again benefit from a slowing global economy and gradually increasing crude supply coming to the market, which may lead to an oversupply of barrels.

In 2025, 20 tankers have called at Saldanha to unload a combined 20.4 million barrels of crude from locations as varied as the US, Nigeria, Angola, and Brazil, according to Kpler data.

Aquarius also owns oil storage and blending sites in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Ghana in Africa, as well as Argentina, Mexico, Belgium, and the UAE.

Crude oil futures slid at the end of the week due to expectations of a significant increase in Opec+ output, exacerbating a sell-off after prices touched six-week highs during Thursday’s trading session.

Brent futures settled at $69.67 per barrel on Friday versus $71.70 per barrel on Thursday. Last week, Reuters reported that the Opec alliance could add as much as 548 000 barrels per day of extra production when it met over the weekend.

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