The chairman and CEO of global tank storage company Royal Vopak has emphasized the need for a long-term outlook when deciding how to position the business going forward.
Speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Eelco Hoekstra explained that the firm, which stores everything from oil and gas to chemicals, "continuously try to assess the long term trends on which commodities are vital to economies to prosper."
"It's our view that Vopak needs to tilt, or move, towards a higher volume of chemicals and gas," he added.
On the issue of whether the company's strategy was because of the business risk in being so focused on oil with the climate agenda now a topic of discussion and debate, Hoekstra adopted a measured approach.
"Well, what we see is that if you look even at all the IEA (International Energy Agency) scenarios, there is still dependency on oil in the long run, but the real growth will be predominantly in gas, and most likely to replace coal."
"I think that's a very sensible thing to do, because in the short term it's an opportunity to abate CO2 (carbon dioxide) and infrastructure is required to do that."
The company followed the industry trends, he added, and tried to find opportunities to invest in gas, citing recent examples of investments in Pakistan and Colombia, and equally in chemicals in places like China.
