The Buckeye Bahamas Hub terminal (BBH) is an oil and petroleum products marine terminal located just west of

Freeport, The Bahamas Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama in the northwest part of The Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted of pineyard with substantial ...

, and is owned by Buckeye Partners. Also known as the Borco terminal, the terminal became operational in 1965, and was originally founded and named after the Bahamas Oil Refining Company International (BORCO). Today, BBH holds 80 tanks with a total capacity of 26,173,000 bbl, making BBH the world's fourth largest marine terminal, and the largest storage terminal facility in the western hemisphere. Buckeye Bahamas Hub is capable of storing, heating, blending, transshipping, and bunkering fuel oil, crude oil, and various petroleum products. The terminal is strategically located along the Northwest Providence Channel, near the southern tip of

Grand Bahama Island Grand Bahama is the northernmost of the islands of the Bahamas. It is the third largest island in the Bahamas island chain of approximately 700 islands and 2,400 cays. The island is roughly in area and approximately long west to east and at it ...

, making it an ideal site for blending, transshipping, and terminal operations. It serves trade routes between the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

, Northwest Europe, West Africa, and the U.S. Gulf and East coasts, as well as North America's trade with Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific. Furthermore, BBH features a vast oil storage area with around 80 tanks and is equipped with three offshore

jetties A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signif ...

and an inland dock. These facilities include a total of 8 berths, specifically designed to accommodate the largest ocean-going vessels, including very large and ultra-large crude carriers. In 1990, Chevron sold the terminal to Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. Then, in 2008, BORCO was acquired by

First Reserve Corporation First Reserve Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments in the energy sector. First Reserve was founded in 1984 and is the oldest and largest private equity fund dedicated to investme ...

, which took an 80% stake, and

Vopak Royal Vopak N.V. () is a Dutch independent multinational corporation, multinational company that stores and handles products ranging from chemicals, petroleum, oil, gases and LNG to biofuels and vegoils. Its purpose is to "Store vital products w ...

, which acquired the remaining 20%, in a $571 million deal. In late December 2010, Buckeye Partners purchased an 80% stake in Bahamas Oil Refining Company International (BORCO) from First Reserve Corporation affiliates for $1.36 billion, and purchased the remaining 20% from Vopak in January 2011. This sale netted Vopak $150 million in after-tax profit. Buckeye Partners would rename the BORCO Terminal Buckeye Bahamas Hub. Buckeye Bahamas Hub is vulnerable to hurricanes - BBH was forced to termperaroly shut down due to

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Hurricane Maria, Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered ...

in 2017, and again in 2019 due to

Hurricane Dorian Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone, which became the most intense on record to strike The Bahamas. It is tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin in term ...

References

{{Reflist Oil terminals