Malaysia: Plans for more petrochemical projects

Gearing up to be oil storage hubs
Chuah Bee Kim New Straits Times 17 Sep 12;

POTENTIAL:Together, Pengerang, Tanjung Bin and Tanjung Langsat are able to store up to 10 million cubic metres of petroleum

PENGERANG, Tanjung Bin and Tanjung Langsat in Johor are gearing up to be the oil storage hubs in the southern region.

Johor Petroleum Development Corporation Bhd chief executive Mohd Yazid Ja'afar said the oil storage hubs could store up to 10 million cubic metres of petroleum in total.

He said if the three storage hubs were to join with Singapore, which is the third-biggest petrochemical hub in the world, they could store between 20 and 25 million cubic metres of petroleum by 2025.

"It (the collaboration) will be like the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub," he told reporters at Kota Iskandar here last Friday.

On a separate matter, Mohd Yazid said a Taiwan-based company and another company from Southeast Asia, are currently conducting a feasibility study on the soil structure in Pengerang to ascertain if it is suitable for the setting up of factories there.

If it is feasible, both companies will take up a total of about 2,020 to 2,424 hectares of the land in Pengerang for their projects.

He added that another China-based company is also exploring the possibility of venturing into petro-chemical industry in Tanjung Langsat.

"The government will ensure that companies that wish to have projects here follow the strict environmental guidelines," he said.

It was reported that the Dialog Group holds a 51 per cent stake in a joint-venture project with Vopak. Both parties have a joint-venture with the state government which has a 10 per cent investment in the project.

The new project by the Dialog- led consortium is part of a larger initiative by Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) under its RM60 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) complex in Pengerang.

Petronas has appointed partners including Italy-based Versalis SpA, BASF (Germany), ITOCHU Corp (Japan) and PTT Global Chemical Public Company Ltd (Thailand) for the Rapid project.

Johor's Oil Storage Capacity Expected To Hit 10 Million Cubic Metres From 2017-2020
Mohd Haikal Mohd Isa Bernama 20 Sep 12;

JOHOR BAHARU, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Johor expects its oil storage capacity to hit 10 million cubic metres in the years 2017-2020 which will see it emerging as Asia's new oil storage hub, said Johor Petroleum Development Corporation Bhd (JPDC).

Its Chief Executive, Mohd Yazid Jaafar, said the oil storage capacity will come from the complexes in Pengerang, Tanjung Bin and Tanjung Langsat.

"We plan to achieve the target (10 million cubic metres) in phases from 2017-2020," he told Bernama in an interview here.

JPDC is a federal government agency, only recently established to coordinate the development of the oil and gas sector in Johor, especially downstream industries such as processing and storage of oil and petrochemicals.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, and Menteri Besar Johor Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, are joint chairman of JPDC.

Mohd Yazid said according to the planning, the Pengerang complex had the potential of storing five million cubic metres of oil, while Tanjung Bin would be able to hold three million and Tanjung Langsat another two million.

Currently, Tanjung Langsat has the capacity for 650,000 cubic metres, while Tanjung Bin can store 840,000 cubic metres.

In Pengerang, Dialog with the cooperation of Royal Vopak NV and the state government is building an Independent Deepwater Petroleum Terminal (IDPT) facility worth RM5 billion.

The terminal is expected to be fully completed in 2014.

The first phase of the project will include building oil storage facility with the capacity to store 1.3 million cubic metres worth RM1.9 billion. Its completion is due next year.

With further expansion, the facility will be able to take on an additional one million cubic metres of oil.

In a recent interview with Bernama, Johor Port had said that it was in the final rounds of negotiations with three investors for investments worth RM2 billion for the storage of oil in Tanjing Bin Petrochemicals and Maritime Centre (TBPMC).

TBPMC was set up by Seaport Worldwide Sdn Bhd, a fully owned subsidiary company of Johor Port.

Mohd Yazid said JPDC was also looking at a storage turnover of between 0.8 to 1.2 million cubic metres or tank turns per-month, similar to the industry level seen in neighbouring Singapore.

"This means in a year, between 100 million and 140 million cubic metres of oil would be going in and out of the related storage tanks."

Currently, the capacity for independent storage of oil in Singapore amounts to 10 million cubic metres while in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Amtwerp (ARA) it amounts to 40-45 million cubic metres.

-- BERNAMA