Coordinates: 42°16′N 41°38′E / 42.27°N 41.64°E / 42.27; 41.64
The Kulevi oil terminal is an oil port on the eastern Black Sea coast in Georgia. The terminal is located in Khobi District, close to the populated area of the village Kulevi, formerly Redoubt Kali, and from the coastal area between rivers Tsiva and Khobistskali.
The Kulevi Oil Terminal project was originally authorised by president Shevardnadze's decree on September 8, 1999. Subsequently, the construction began near the village of Kulevi by Terminal 2000 Ltd, a partnership created between Argomar Oil Ltd and Georgian Railway. In late 2002 though, the project was put on hold, due to environmental concerns and insufficient funds. Construction resumed in September 2004 under an international consortium of investors led by a Georgian business tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili. Two years later Badri Patarkatsishvili sold his stake in Kulevi Terminal, then still under construction, to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) for an undisclosed sum of money.
An oil depot (sometimes called a tank farm, installation or oil terminal) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil and/or petrochemical products and from which these products are usually transported to end users or further storage facilities. An oil depot typically has tankage, either above ground or underground, and gantries (framework) for the discharge of products into road tankers or other vehicles (such as barges) or pipelines.
Oil depots are usually situated close to oil refineries or in locations where marine tankers containing products can discharge their cargo. Some depots are attached to pipelines from which they draw their supplies and depots can also be fed by rail, by barge and by road tanker (sometimes known as "bridging").
Most oil depots have road tankers operating from their grounds and these vehicles transport products to petrol stations or other users.
An oil depot is a comparatively unsophisticated facility in that (in most cases) there is no processing or other transformation on site. The products which reach the depot (from a refinery) are in their final form suitable for delivery to customers. In some cases additives may be injected into products in tanks, but there is usually no manufacturing plant on site. Modern depots comprise the same types of tankage, pipelines and gantries as those in the past and although there is a greater degree of automation on site, there have been few significant changes in depot operational activities over time.
