The acquisition of St. Eustatius facility marks the Prostar's second transaction in the region following its investment in Eureka Midstream, a gas gathering business in 2017

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Image: Photo courtesy of Carlo San/Freeimages.com.

US-based private investment firm Prostar has completed the acquisition of NuStar Energy’s oil storage terminal facility for a purchase price of $250m (£205m).

The sale of an oil storage terminal located on the island of St. Eustatius, a Dutch island in the Caribbean, was initially announced in May 2019.

The acquisition of terminal is set to complement the Prostar’s existing storage terminal platform, Global Terminal Investments, which also owns Fujairah Oil Terminal and GTI Fujairah located in the Port of Fujairah, UAE.

Prostar senior managing director Steve Bickerton said: “We are excited to be acquiring one of the largest independent storage terminals in the region.

“This transaction is consistent with Prostar’s strategy of identifying assets that are strategically positioned to serve their customers, and where opportunities exist to de-risk the business’s cash flows and grow shareholder value. Prostar actively looks to augment its portfolio companies through expansion capital, and we see several paths to do that with GTI Statia.”

Prostar rebrands the St. Eustatius terminal as GTI Statia

Following the completion of the transaction, the St. Eustatius terminal has been rebranded as GTI Statia.

Prostar said that the GTI Statia terminal is strategically located alongside major shipping lanes serving US crude import and export markets, along with the regional markets for fuel oil and refined petroleum products in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The terminal is comprised of 60 commercial tanks with a total storage capacity of 2.3 million cubic meters and extensive marine infrastructure that can accommodate fully-laden VLCC and ULCC vessels.

NuStar Energy president and chief executive officer Brad Barron said: “We are pleased that this sale allows us to re-deploy the sales proceeds to continue to lower our leverage and to fund growth projects in our core North American business, allowing us to focus our resources on building our core asset base, as well as continuing to strengthen our financial metrics to generate stable, consistent growth for our unitholders.

“And while it was a very difficult decision to divest the terminal given that it is such a high-quality asset with outstanding employees, we are pleased to hand over the reins to a company with a business model that is better aligned to take advantage of the terminal’s location and operational strengths, which ensures a bright future for the facility and its employees.”

Prostar Capital, which is a specialised investment manager, is engaged in investing in midstream energy infrastructure assets across the world.