Steel tanks are rising at Djibouti’s Doraleh Multipurpose Port. If ATLS’s plan succeeds, the terminal will do more than store fuel: it will load it directly onto trains bound for Ethiopia. That would mark a first for fuel imports into Ethiopia and give the heavily road-dependent fuel corridor a new way to move large volumes inland. The prospect is fewer tanker journeys on suitable routes and a closer link between ships, storage and rail. Whether it delivers those gains will depend on the railway connection and the way the system is run.
The African Terminal & Logistics Services (ATLS) project is designed as a petroleum storage and distribution hub connecting maritime imports with Ethiopia’s road and railway networks. Its first phase is expected to provide 288,000 cubic metres of storage and be commissioned by June 2027. Longer term, planned capacity could reach about 750,000 cubic metres.
Ethiopia imports much of its petroleum through Djibouti, and fuel has to be stored, loaded and moved inland before it reaches businesses and households. The route remains heavily dependent on tanker trucks. Roughly 350 trucks reportedly carry fuel from the Horizon Djibouti Terminal to Ethiopia each day, while congestion, border procedures, truck availability and shipping delays can all affect supply.
More storage can help ease that pressure. Operators can receive fuel from vessels, hold it near the port and dispatch it when demand or transport capacity allows. That separates ship arrivals from the immediate availability of trucks or rail wagons, giving the supply chain more room to respond to disruption and changing demand.
The added tank capacity could also give Ethiopia more room to build and maintain fuel safety stocks close to its main maritime gateway. These reserves would provide a buffer against shipping delays or short-term supply disruptions, strengthening national energy security while allowing imports to be stored before dispatch inland.
ATLS’s planned train-loading arms are the project’s most distinctive feature. They are intended to speed loading and handle more railway wagons, allowing fuel to move from the terminal onto the Ethio-Djibouti Railway. Direct rail loading would be new for ATLS and could open a practical route for carrying petroleum inland in bulk.
For long-distance movements, rail can carry volumes that would otherwise require many tanker truck journeys. Shifting some suitable traffic to trains could reduce pressure on the road corridor and make fuel dispatch more efficient. It would also give Ethiopia another way to move fuel when truck capacity is tight. The scale of any benefit will depend on reliable service, wagon availability and coordination across the route.
That connection is not automatic. The railway was built to provide a faster link between Djibouti’s ports and Ethiopia’s inland markets, but port access and loading infrastructure have limited its role in moving fuel. In February 2026, the Ethio-Djibouti Joint Railway Commission agreed to accelerate links to Doraleh and the Horizon terminal.
Trains will not replace trucks. Ethiopia’s markets are spread across a large territory, and many destinations are beyond the railway network. ATLS is therefore also installing several truck-loading stations so tankers can be loaded in parallel. Rail can serve high-volume destinations while trucks continue to reach places the railway cannot.
The two modes could give operators more flexibility when one route is disrupted or demand changes. But the terminal’s performance will depend on how well it coordinates vessel arrivals, storage, loading bays, train wagons, tanker trucks and border procedures. Storage capacity only becomes useful when fuel can move through each of those steps without avoidable delays.
For Djibouti, ATLS could bring more port activity and demand for logistics services. For Ethiopia, it could add storage and a rail option to a fuel-import route that is now dominated by road transport. Together, those links could strengthen the corridor’s ability to handle large volumes and respond to supply pressure.
The project will not by itself resolve every challenge in the fuel chain. Procurement, foreign-exchange availability, road conditions, railway performance and coordination between agencies will continue to influence the cost and reliability of deliveries.
Construction has moved the project from plans to physical work. If the first phase is commissioned as scheduled in June 2027, ATLS will be tested on whether it can turn new storage and rail-loading capacity into dependable fuel movement. The first trains will matter for more than the terminal: they will show whether Djibouti’s port and Ethiopia’s inland supply chain can work as one system.