Malaysia orders seven floating storage facilities to leave

The Malaysian government has ordered seven floating storage facilities that were anchored off the port of Pasir Gudang to leave in August. A senior official with the Malaysian government confirmed the order but no reasons were given for the move. Industry sources said it could be because Malaysian authorities want to improve access to several existing and planned oil terminals around Pasir Gudang, including the new proposed Petronas refinery, Reuters reported. “They have been talking about wanting to do some dredging works at the water-channel for a while , as the draft is quite shallow, and it can’t even take a fully-laden aframax,” a Singapore-based storage operator said. “Right now, there are two shore terminals in the area, but more are coming up, including the site of Petronas’ proposed refinery. But the new projects won’t be ready for at least four years, so I don’t understand why they are doing it now.” Currently, there are two land terminals in the area, Cosco Feoto’s 200,000 cubic meter (cum) facility in Pasir Gudang and the 500,000 cu m plant in Tanjong Langsat, occupied solely by Trafigura. Another new terminal, with a capacity of 1.3 million cum, is being built further east in Pengerang, where the proposed 300,000 barrel per day Petronas refinery is also to be located. The floating storage facilities have a combined storage capacity of 1.9 million tons. Pasir Gudang was been used for floating storage for the past eight to nine years. (August 1, 2011)