Ronnie Lim Business Times 29 Oct 11;
THE first 'megafloat' at Pulau Sebarok - a pilot project to store oil on very large floating structures (VLFS) here - will be government-led, but private sector-run, as part of ongoing efforts to develop alternative facilities for oil traders in land-scarce Singapore.
It is to be built and owned initially by JTC Corporation but operated by Royal Vopak, one of the biggest terminal operators here, sources said. Under the plan, Vopak will have the option to take over ownership of the floating storage later.
Vopak has apparently indicated its intent to do so, although company officials were not available to confirm this.
The Dutch tank farm operator is reportedly the logical choice to run the Sebarok megafloat as the VLFS site is just behind its existing surface tank farm there.
It is one of four oil and chemical tank farms which Vopak operates on Jurong Island, the others being at the Banyan, Penjuru and Sakra sectors.
JTC's lead in the project will help promote floating oil storage which has no proven track record yet, as far as its commercial viability is concerned, the sources said.
It is not unlike the Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC) project to store oil underground, with the $850 million first phase currently being built by JTC expected to be ready by the first half of 2013. JRC has already found its first customer in Jurong Aromatics Corporation which is building a US$2.4 billion petrochemicals complex on the island.
BT understands that JTC is set to call a tender for an operator to run the JRC soon.
The shortage of storage capacity here with no more land available for building more surface tank farms, has led many international oil traders based here to resort to using tank farms sprouting up in neighbouring Johor. These include those at Tanjung Langsat, Pasir Gudang, Tanjung Bin and Pengerang - with Vopak building with Malaysia's Dialog a huge US$1 billion tank farm at Pengerang.
On the megafloat project here, sources said that while no additional sites have been identified for more such VLFS yet, these will likely be contiguous to, or touching or joining, land which require no sandfill.
Final-stage engineering for the Sebarok VLFS is being done by a consortium comprising Jurong Consultants and British Maritime Technology Group and will include input from the user, in this case, Vopak. The consultants are expected to prepare and call for the engineering, procurement and construction tender for its construction in the coming months.
The megafloat will have a minimum storage capacity of 300,000 cubic metres, or equal to that of a very large crude carrier. It would comprise two rectangular modules, each with 150,000 cu m capacity.
Earlier estimates were that the project would cost at least $180 million, although this will depend on the materials, such as whether steel or concrete, used.
JTC studies on the project started back in 2007, with phase one covering a preliminary conceptual design of an attached-to-land VLFS. This progressed to phase two covering areas such as environmental impact, marine soil investigation and sea current monitoring, which was completed last year.
