Malaysia mulling legal action over Langsat terminal fire

An official report into the Tanjung Langsat terminal fire in August 2008 has been forwarded to Malaysia’s Law Ministry to decide if any legal will be taken, a source familiar with the matter said Friday. The report will not be released publicly until a decision was made, the source said. He did not indicate which agency had submitted the report, or when a decision likely. The restart of the oil and petrochemicals terminal was originally set for end-April but has since been rescheduled for later July, Platts reported earlier. The two tanks that were gutted held 17,800 cubic meters of gasoline and 8,000 cu m of naphtha, respectively. Both have been demolished and rebuilding is underway. Three of the remaining six tanks that escaped the fire held a combined 15,300 cu m of 88 RON unleaded gasoline and MTBE, a gasoline blending component. All products stored at the terminal belonged to Trafigura, and the unscathed material was discharged to the European trader end-March. The terminal is owned by Tanjung Langsat Port, which is 99.75% owned by Johor Corp. and 0.25% by TPM Technopark. (July 3, 2009)