Last checked at 
* Firm co-owned by Trafigura and Angola enters UK
* UK increasingly reliant on fuel imports
* Will increase Puma's storage capacity by 25 pct (Adds details, analyst comment)
By David Sheppard and Himanshu Ojha
LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - The shuttered Milford Haven oilrefinery in Wales will be turned into a storage site by PumaEnergy, as the firm co-owned by Swiss commodity giant Trafiguraand Angola's state oil company looks to capitalise on Britain'sgrowing need for fuel imports.
Puma Energy bought the plant and three inland storageterminals from Murphy Oil as the U.S.-based firm windsdown its UK subsidiary, Murco, after suffering from weak demandand growing international competition from newer refineries.
The raft of refinery closures in Britain in recent years hasleft it increasingly reliant on shipping in fuel from overseas,with net imports of petroleum products tripling last year. Thatis creating opportunities for storage and distribution firms.
"(Puma) will make Milford Haven a key site securing thesupply of energy to the UK and wider region during a period ofchange in European energy infrastructure," Puma said on Friday.
A deal to keep the 130,000 barrels per day plant operatingas a refinery collapsed in November, putting 450 jobs at risk.
Puma said it would welcome "all the terminal anddistribution employees".
The purchase, the terms of which was not disclosed, isPuma's first foray into Britain and gives it access to adeep-water port on Wales' southwest coast.
It will boost Puma's global oil storage capacity by around25 percent to 7 million cubic metres, the equivalent ofapproximately 44 million barrels of oil.
The firm has been expanding from its roots as a fuel storageand distribution company focused largely on Latin America andAfrica. On Friday, Puma also bought BP Plc's Australianbitumen business, adding to other operations it now has inNorway, Spain, and Estonia.
Major shareholder Trafigura reduced its stake in Puma to 49percent two years ago, while Angola's state-owned oil companySonangol increased its share to 30 percent.
Puma is also part-owned by Cochan Holdings, a firm foundedby Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, a one-time army generalclose to Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
ENERGY SECURITY AND IMPORTS
Storage and distribution companies have grown as energymajors such as Shell and BP streamlined their operations, withrising costs forcing them to focus on production projects evenbefore the price of oil collapsed at the end of last year.
The European refining sector has been particularly hard hit,with slow economic growth curbing oil demand, while more modernplants in the Middle East and Asia have increased competition.
UK refineries have especially suffered, with limited statesupport available.
The latest figures from the UKPIA refining trade groupshowed Britain imported nearly 50 percent of the diesel and 55percent of the jet fuel it needs. That puts it above the"high-risk" energy security threshold of 45 percent designatedby the West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency.
Milford Haven's closure followed that of the Corytonrefinery in the east of England in 2012.
An industrial dispute in 2013 brought the Grangemouthrefinery in Scotland to the brink of closure, before theScottish and UK governments provided some financial support. (Editing by Susan Thomas and Mark Potter)
