PANAMA CITY, May 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BP Products North America (BPPNA) has entered into an agreement with Petroterminal de Panama S.A. (PTP) that will allow BP to ship crude oil to its US West Coast refineries through the Trans-Panama Pipeline (TPP). (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000724/NYM120LOGO ) The 81-mile TPP originally carried crude oil through Panama from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. PTP will modernize the pipeline and reverse the direction of flow, significantly reducing delivery times and transportation costs to the US West Coast. Previously, crude cargoes sailing from east to west took an additional 30 days to travel the thousands of miles around Cape Horn, South America. Following completion of the project, BP VLCCs (two-million barrel Very Large Crude Carriers) will be able to carry Angolan and other crudes to the port of Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean for the journey across the isthmus of Panama. Crude will be piped to the port of Charco Azul on the Pacific coast where it will be received by tankers for the journey to refineries on the US West Coast. Construction is expected to take about two years. "This agreement will allow BP to access strategic infrastructure that will greatly reduce transportation time, lowering logistic costs and increase flexibility of supply to US West Coast refineries," said Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America. Under the seven-year agreement, BP will acquire 5 million barrels of storage and commit to pipeline shipments of 65,000 barrels per day. "PTP has transported over 3 billion barrels of petroleum in helping its customers with their logistical and strategic needs. A majority of that volume was done with BP and PTP looks forward to resuming the relationship and serving the needs of BP," said Jay Bernstein, President of PTP. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000724/NYM120LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: BP Products North America CONTACT: Daren Beaudo, BP Press Office, Houston USA, +1-281-366-8346; Peter Ripp, Executive Vice President of NIC Holding Group, Melville, NY, USA, for PTP, +1-631-753-4209 Web site: http://www.bp.com/

Copyright