Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant has opened a storage and blending facility in Karratha, Western Australia, to support oil and gas production in the North West Shelf. The facility, just 21 kilometers from the port of Dampier, means that transport times from Perth will be cut drastically, saving customers millions of dollars each year.

Bernie Kelly, head of business development Asia-Pacific at Clariant (Australia), explained that the current model of transporting chemicals from Perth to Dampier in a trip of more than 1,500 kilometers was extremely inefficient, costly and unsustainable given present oil and gas market conditions.

The Karratha plant reduces the transport distance by 99% and shortens order-to-delivery time from more than 24 hours to less than two hours. “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%,” said Kelly.

The new base has a storage capacity of up to 300,000 liters and can blend solvent/hydrocarbon- and water-based chemical products.