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Fortune Oil established the Maoming Single Point Mooring (SPM) in December 1994 to supply crude oil to Sinopec's Maoming refinery, the largest in southern China. The SPM now delivers 8% of China's crude oil imports. It allows VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) of up to 300,000 tonnes to moor and deliver crude oil via a 15km sub-sea pipeline. The SPM is owned and operated by our subsidiary, Maoming King Ming Petroleum Company Limited, and the other main shareholder is Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Corporation.
The SPM buoy is commonly used throughout the world for loading and unloading liquids but the Maoming SPM remains the only buoy system in China used for importing crude oil. Fortune Oil believes that the SPM concept is a cost-effective solution for importing crude oil into China as many ports are shallow and will become more congested as demand increases. The only alternative to a buoy system in many ports is to dredge channels for large tankers. The SPM has provided significant cost savings to the Maoming refinery through its low operating costs and VLCC capability. There is no port in China that can handle VLCCs larger than those at the Maoming SPM.
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