(EnergyAsia, July 23 2012, Monday) — Puma Energy, a Switzerland-based midstream and downstream oil company, has begun its expansion into Asia with the purchase of Chevron Kuo Pte Ltd, a Singapore entity which owns 70% of Chevron Bitumen Vietnam Limited (CBVL).

With a 35-member staff, CBVL imports, stores and distributes bitumen or asphalt for road building and infrastructure developments in Vietnam. The company owns and operates a terminal in Hai Phong port with wharf facilities and a 5,000-metric ton state-of-the-art bitumen storage terminal that supports its bitumen distribution business in the main urban centres of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
 
Following rapid growth across Africa and the Americas, Puma Energy said the acquisition marks Vietnam as the 32nd country that it is operating in. The company plans to beef up CBVL with the aim of growing its sale volumes through better regional logistics.

Pierre Eladari, Puma Energy’s CEO, described the acquisition as “the next step in our planned expansion in Asia as we become a global marketer of bitumen. Today, we operate over 100,000 tonnes of bitumen storage capacity, with plans to expand the footprint to over 200,000 tonnes within five years.”

Apart from operating a chain of bitumen terminals in Spain, Angola and Central America, Puma Energy owns and manages refineries, and a network of over 1,000 service stations around the world.