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With 77 terminals across 23 countries comprising 35.42 million cubic meters in storage, Vopak is a global independent tank storage company providing safe, reliable, and efficient infrastructure solutions for bulk liquids and sustainable products. For more than four centuries, Vopak has built strong relationships with customers and communities, and as the energy transition evolves around the globe, the company is committed to advancing partnerships, technologies, and solutions for new energies.
When we last spoke with Maria Ciliberti, president of Vopak USA & Canada Business Unit, just over one year ago, she shared details about the company’ s latest developments, including progress at the Ridley Island Energy Export Facility( REEF) in Canada, sustainability developments, and ongoing investments in its‘ improve, grow, accelerate’ strategy. As 2025 marked Vopak’ s 50th anniversary in the United States, we sit down with Maria for an update on the company’ s operations and milestone celebrations.
Safety as a priority
“ Reflecting on Vopak’ s journey in the US, it’ s apparent that our success is down to our people; in the words of Woody Hayes,‘ you win with people,’ and that’ s certainly the case for Vopak,” Maria begins.“ When I say‘ people,’ I define them in two categories – our employees and our customers. Firstly, our employees take on very difficult and often hazardous work with a conscientious and safety-driven mindset, which enables us to deliver safe, reliable service to our customers. Secondly, we’ re fortunate to have positive, longstanding, and trusted relationships with our customers. In fact, we have customers at our Deer Park, Texas terminal that have been with us since we began operations in 1975. There are so many people and authorities we’ ve collaborated with over the years, and I’ d like to thank all those people that have been key to our success.”
While people are at the heart of Vopak’ s US growth, the company’ s long-term success is also driven by its impressive approach to investment.“ We invest in the business on two fronts: sustaining CapEx and growth CapEx,” Maria says.“ Sustaining CapEx means maintaining and upgrading our existing assets. We’ re engaged in a multi-year project at Deer Park, for instance, to replace the terminal’ s bulkhead, which blocks water from the Houston Ship Channel from getting into the terminal itself. We’ re replacing a 50-yearold bulkhead in multiple phases, and we’ ve already completed two important steps.
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