Tender for Tuas offshore marine centre called

Starting in July, project to be ready by end-2011
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 21 May 10;

CONSTRUCTION of an offshore marine centre at Tuas South for oil/gas exploration & production support and marine companies will start this July, with the multi-million dollar project scheduled to be up and running by end-2011, BT has learnt.

JTC Corporation on Tuesday called the main construction tender for the offshore base which will be built at a 13-hectare site at Tuas View Extension. The latter, a hockey-stick shaped area in the west, is fast shaping up to be Singapore's next big port development.

Confirming the project go-ahead, a JTC spokeswoman said that strong demand for limited waterfront sites prompted the move.

'The multi-user facility will provide common waterfront and berthing facilities for offshore and marine companies that are involved in the manufacturing and fabrication of heavy equipment, components and structures,' said the spokeswoman.

'It is aimed at attracting new and quality types of manufacturing activities which will generate high economic value in terms of value-add and fixed asset investment,' she added.

While there are about 20 designated plots at the centre, some of the larger tenants are expected to take up several plots each.

JTC declined to give an estimate of the total project cost.

But one indication comes from the JTC tender which specified that the winning contractor should have at least an A2 grade for civil engineering under the Contractors' Registry administered by the Building and Construction Authority. This allows the contractor to tender for public sector projects with contract values of up to $85 million each.

The scope of works, covering architectural to civil and structural, includes dredging of the seabed fronting the offshore centre, plus construction of a 320-metre long wharf.

The base will have a two-storey central operations building and an electrical sub-station, while three areas of the 30-metre wide wharf will be designed for 500-ton mobile crane operations.

JTC first announced plans for the project in September last year, following a strong pipeline of customers for waterfront land, especially in the west.

There used to be an offshore supply base at Shipyard Road in Jurong which has since closed, and all the offshore supply facilities there relocated to Loyang Offshore Supply Base in the east.

Other developments at the new Tuas View Extension include Sembcorp Marine's new massive yard - with the first phase 73.3 ha development expected to be completed by 2013. The Marine and Port Authority of Singapore is also doing soil investigation and seismic surveys at the hockey-stick shaped area.