New terminal lease signed for wood pellet export plan

The Virginia Port Authority has agreed a 20-year lease at its Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT) to a Virginia company that plans to export wood pellets to Europe.

Ecofuels Pellet Storage (EPS) will lease 15 acres at PMT and build two domes to house and prepare wood pellets for export. It expects to be operational by the second quarter of 2014.

‘EPS has been set up to take advantage of the growing biomass market in Europe,’ says EPS partner Peter O’Keefe. ‘This will be the first of our operations and we are thrilled with the port’s decision to accept our business plan.’

PMT has been vacant Since January 2011 PMT has been vacant as port authority operations were moved to APM Terminals following the port authority’s 20-year lease of the marine terminal in Portsmouth.

EPS will be the port’s first tenant at PMT but the authority states it is continuing to work with other potential tenants too.