India’s Reliance seeking to acquire oil storage in U.S.

NEW DELHI - India's Reliance Industries wants to acquire storage on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast to sell fuel, a senior official said. Some deals already in progress are expected to be announced shortly.
"We are looking for storages in the East Coast, the Gulf Coast and the West Coast... We are under process to acquire in East Coast and the Gulf Coast," the company official, who declined to be named due to company policy, told the Reuters news agency.
It was not immediately clear if Reliance would lease or buy the storage.
Trade sources say the volume of the storage facilities could be about 200,000-250,000 cubic meters and a deal is expected to be announced by end-March.
The firm would use the storage to market oil products from its recently commissioned 580,000 b/d refinery, owned by subsidiary Reliance Petroleum.
The new plant, sited next to the group's existing 660,000-bpd refinery, has turned Reliance's Jamnagar complex into the world's biggest oil refining facility.
Reliance recently started gasoline trading operations in the United States, adding liquidity to physical trading. Its office, located in Texas, will trade gasoline both on the U.S. Gulf Coast and New York Harbor markets.
"Southeast Asia is surplus, Europe is almost flat and the U.S. is the only market where they can sell the products. They may float their own brand at a later date," said a trade source.