Clariant opens new Australian storage and blending facility

Chemicals company Clariant opens its new Karratha, Western Australia storage and blending facility. This facility will significantly reduce the chemical transport distance to customers.

“The current business model for supporting oil and gas production efforts in this region is to transport production chemicals from Perth to Dampier, which is more than a 1,500-km trip,” says Bernie Kelly, Head of Business Development, Asia Pacific for Clariant (Australia) Pty Ltd. “This model is incredibly inefficient, extremely costly and impossible to sustain given today’s oil and gas market conditions. Clariant’s bold decision to take a fresh look at supporting its customers in the region with this new facility will save oil and gas producers millions of dollars annually.”

Clariant’s new blending/supply base in Karratha offers a storage capacity of up to 300,000 liters to ensure a consistent flow of production chemicals to the region. The facility can blend thousands of liters annually of solvent/hydrocarbon- and water-based chemical products to support oil and gas production efforts. With its 21-km distance from the supply port of Dampier, the new Karratha plant allows Clariant to simplify the transport logistics from Perth, which required offshore tank rental and a multitude of over-the-road tanker trucks. By reducing transport distance by 99%, it shortens call-off-to-delivery time from more than 24 hours to less than 2 hours.

“We thoroughly analyzed the transportation logistics and cost of a typical producer supporting the North West Shelf oil and gas production from Perth,” continues Kelly. “By moving support efforts to the new Karratha facility, a producer can potentially lower onshore transport and offshore tank hire costs by 52%, reduce truck movements by 50% and shrink its offshore tank fleet by 25%. All these add up to significant financial gains for our customers, with savings adding up to be millions of Australian dollars over the next few years.”