JT Grup Oil, a Romanian company active in the fuel distribution market, announces the completion of JT Terminal – an investment of almost 30 million euros and takes a step towards an integrated business model, combining trading, logistics, storage and distribution of petroleum products. The project will be followed by two more terminals, Jean Paul Tucan told Energynomics. He says that JT Grup Oil has obtained the construction permit for a new petroleum products terminal in the port of Tișovița – Dubova, in the Orșova area, in Mehedinți county. At the same time, the company plans to open a bitumen terminal in Constanța.
For now, the new terminal inaugurated this week is entering the operational phase and adding an operating capacity of up to 1 million tons of petroleum products annually – mainly diesel and jet fuel.
The completion of the investment comes at a time when security of supply, diversification of logistics routes and access to storage and distribution infrastructure have become central themes for the European energy market. The location of JT Terminal in the Port of Constanta, on the Black Sea, access to the Danube-Black Sea corridor and the connection of maritime and river flows with rail and road infrastructure provide an important logistical advantage for Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine. The terminal creates a new entry, storage and distribution point for petroleum products and contributes to strengthening the role of the Port of Constanta in logistics flows to the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
The modern infrastructure of JT Terminal reduces the times required for logistics operations and increases the flexibility of supply flows, being designed to serve both the Romanian market and the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine and to support the development of new trade flows to these markets.
“The completion of JT Terminal means for us the conclusion of the most complex investment project that JT Grup Oil has carried out to date. We started this investment based on a concrete market need – Romania needs additional capacities through which it can bring, store and distribute larger volumes of petroleum products. Today, this infrastructure exists, and the investment goes beyond the development of a new business line for JT Grup Oil – the terminal introduces additional import, storage and distribution capacity to the market and contributes to the diversification of the infrastructure through which Romania can ensure its petroleum product needs”, says Bogdan Aldea, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Manager of JT Grup Oil.
“JT Terminal is one of the most important investments we have made and a project in which we believed from the beginning, even though we encountered many challenges. We are talking about an investment made through the contribution of Romanian private capital, bank financing and European funds, which we completed despite a complex process, which also involved delays of approximately nine months and numerous administrative challenges. Beyond what JT Terminal means for the development of the company, we have delivered an infrastructure that provides the economy with a new gateway for petroleum products, which can support the supply of Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine”, adds Jean Paul Tucan, the company’s majority shareholder.
From fuel distribution to an integrated business model
For JT Grup Oil, the operationalization of JT Terminal significantly changes the size and structure of the business. The company is moving from a model focused mainly on fuel distribution to an integrated one, which brings together trading, logistics, storage and distribution and allows it to participate in a larger part of the value chain, from the entry of the product into the country and storage to delivery to customers. The new infrastructure creates the premises for increasing traded volumes, attracting international partners and developing new trade flows to Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine. Since the project development period, JT Grup Oil has indicated the existence of commercial interest from companies from the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine to use the new logistics capacity.
“The operationalization of JT Terminal fundamentally changes our development capacity. We now have the necessary infrastructure to operate volumes of up to 1 million tons annually and to develop partnerships with large international companies, as well as new trade flows through the Port of Constanta. For the coming years, our objective is to gradually increase the terminal’s utilization and traded volumes, while maintaining the financial discipline and transparency that our status as a listed company requires of us”, adds Bogdan Aldea.
The completion of JT Terminal represents the basis for the next stage of development of JT Grup Oil, the company continuing its strategy of developing its logistics infrastructure, by developing a new bitumen terminal. Thus, the Group aims to expand the available infrastructure and enter a segment complementary to its current activities. In parallel, JT Grup Oil is working on the development of the Dubova project, located at a strategic point at the entrance/exit of Romania. The project is under development and will have an operational capacity of 20,000 tons per month, completing the Group’s logistics infrastructure and supporting cross-border flows of petroleum products.
New logistics capacity for Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine
JT Terminal has eight tanks, with a total static storage capacity of 31,500 tons, and is designed for an annual operating volume of up to 1 million tons, through stock rotation. The infrastructure allows the management of barges with capacities ranging from 3,000 to 9,000 tons, the simultaneous operation of 16 wagons on two parallel railway lines and the operation of flows for up to 100 tankers per day.
JT Terminal’s loading and unloading capacity reaches 700–1,000 tons per hour for ships, 300–700 tons per hour for trains and 250 tons per hour for tankers. The full automation of the terminal allows for the coordination of flows in the control center and the reduction of operating times, an important advantage in a sector where the speed of product rotation directly influences logistics costs.
