The construction work of the UAE's largest underground crude oil storage site, which was launched last year by SK Engineering & Construction (SK E&C), is on the right track.
SK E &C announced on Feb. 28 that the Al Mandous oil storage site project, which is worth $1.2 billion ordered by ADNOC, the UAE's state oil company, has completed the access tunnel work and started the construction of underground storage facilities (Cavern).
The project is to build an underground oil-saving base with a total of 42 million barrels on the underground rock in Fujairah, located on the northeast coast of the UAE. The storage capacity is equivalent to 20 300,000 ton-class VLCCs. It is the largest single project in the world.
SK E&C is going to construct three underground oil storage facilities and an upper plant facility that manages the input and output of crude oil and carry out a test operation. The completion is scheduled for 2022.
According to the company, the Al Mandous oil deposit base can store three types of crude oil. It is also expected to increase flexibility of the company’s global export strategy through the Arabian Sea because it is easy to manage and optimize the transportation schedule.
SK E&C has built a total of eight underground oil-saving bases at home and abroad, including Ulsan and Yeosu, as well as Mangalore and Padur in India. In particular, the company has a lot of experience in building large stockpile bases of more than 10 million barrels, and has the world's largest construction record reaching a total of 75 million barrels of crude oil.
"The construction of the UAE's underground oil reserve base, which will be built on the largest scale in the world, is currently progressing smoothly," said Ahn Jae-hyun, president of SK E&C. "We will try to find more opportunities in the global storage market in the future."
