Dialog starts ops in Pengerang

Ngau(pic)): 'This is a historic moment as we work towards the transformation of Pengerang into a regional oil and gas hub.

KOTA TINGGI: Dialog Bhd’s Pengerang Independent Terminals Sdn Bhd (PITSB) welcomed the first vessel carrying fuel for its petroleum and crude storage facility in Pengerang on Saturday, marking the start of its oil storage operations there.

MT Vinalise Glory, which arrived from the Middle East, became the first ship to dock at the terminal which offers crude oil storage facilities for trading purposes.

“This is a historic moment as we work towards the transformation of Pengerang into a regional oil and gas hub like what’s Rotterdam to Europe,’’ said Dialog Group Bhd executive chairman Dr Ngau Boon Keat at a briefing.

Dialog’s facility will raise competition in the crude oil storage business that is generally dominated by operators in Singapore currently.

Ngau, who is also PITSB chairman, said the company was confident that Phase One of Pengerang Terminal operated by PITSB would serve its purpose to meet the growing need for storage capacity of crude oil and petroleum products in the Asian region.

He said PITSB was currently in talks with two potential investors to develop additional terminals under Phase Two and Three of the independent terminal project.

“We have allocated about 80.93ha for Phase Two and Three of the development and the investment is likely to be more than what have been invested in Phase One,’’ he said.

Phase One covers 60.70ha of reclaimed seabed land, with initial storage capacity of about 1.3 million cu m, cost RM2bil. This is small compared to Singapore, which boast a capacity of 20 million cu m. However, a scarcity of land in Singapore has been a stumbling block for its expansion.

Dialog’s independent trading terminal and dedicated liquefied natural gas terminal has a total four storage tanks with a capacity of 160,000 cu m each and involved a total investment of RM4bil.

Upon completion, the deepwater petroleum terminal would be able to handle the storage, blending and distribution of crude oil and petroleum products. It is owned by PITSB, a joint venture between Dialog Group, Royal Vopak and State Secretary Johor Inc.

Phase 1A was completed last month and consists of 25 tanks with a total storage capacity of 432,000 cu m for clean petroleum products.

Vopak Asia division president Patrick van der Voort said the Pengerang independent oil terminal (Phase One) was one of Vopak’s most important projects in Asia, catering to the growing energy demand in the region.

“We have added Pengerang Terminal into our global network of 80 terminals across 29 countries and are looking forward to serving our customers at the new terminal,’’ he said.