Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Chong Pooi Koon & Ann Koh Bloomberg 21 Dec 12;

Dialog Group Bhd., (DLG) Malaysia’s second-biggest oil and gas services provider, said it signed some customers for the 1.9 billion-ringgit ($620 million) storage terminal it’s developing with Royal Vopak NV. (VPK)

Talks with other potential clients are continuing, Dialog Executive Chairman Ngau Boon Keat said in an interview Dec. 18 at Pengerang, Malaysia’s southern Johor state neighboring Singapore.

Dialog, Vopak and local government are developing the site at Pengerang, with initial capacity of 1.3 million cubic meters, to meet rising demand for oil storage in Asia and as space in Singapore dwindles. The companies are betting on the terminal’s location to capture trade flow between China, India and Asia, Ngau said at the site.

“Our location is blessed with 24-meter deep natural berth able to bring in very large crude carriers,” said Law Say Huat, chief executive officer of the venture developing the Pengerang terminal. “We are offering an alternative to the crude oil traders, refiners, or the suppliers to be able to bring here to blend up, to break bulk or to make bulk.”

The tanks will be for clean products and crude oil and will begin operating from 2014, Ngau said. Clean products include fuels such as gasoline, naphtha, diesel and kerosene. The company has no immediate plans to build fuel oil tanks.

“At the moment, there is quite a lot fuel oil storage,” Ngau said. “We’re more targeting crude oil storage.”