Apparently dubbed ‘megafloat’, the project is Singapore’s latest answer to land-challenged Jurong Island, which does not allow for any more surface-based oil storage to be built.

Final-stage engineering for the floating terminal at Pulau Sebarok – likely to be used to store oil products and be operated by Royal Vopak – has just started, with tenders for its construction expected around June.

BT understands that this follows a tender award last month by JTC Corporation to the Jurong Consultants/British Maritime Technology Group (BMT) consortium for front-end engineering design (FEED) for the very large floating structure (VLFS).

The scarcity of land for oil storage in Jurong Island is a long-standing one, and sites there are instead earmarked for high value-add oil and chemicals process plants.

That is why JTC also recently embarked on building the $890 million first phase of Jurong Rock Cavern, comprising 1.47 million cu m of capacity, to store oil underground.

The zero availability of land for additional oil storage has led to many oil traders and terminal operators here resorting to either building or leasing space at new terminals in neighbouring Johor instead.

Vopak, already one of the biggest terminal operators in Singapore with over 2.59 million cubic metres of storage capacity, is for instance joining hands with Malaysia’s Dialog to build a 5 million cu m terminal, costing RM5 billion (S$2.1 billion), in Pengerang this April.

While operatorship has apparently not been awarded yet, Vopak is the logical choice to run the ‘megafloat’ at Pulau Sebarok, as the VLFS site is just behind the Dutch terminal operator’s existing surface tankfarm. It is one of four oil and chemical tankfarms which Vopak operates on Jurong Island, the others being at the Banyan, Penjuru and Sakra sectors.

The Jurong Consultants-BMT Group consortium is understood to be carrying out FEED for the ‘megafloat’ with flexibility for it to be built either from concrete or steel.

Earlier JTC studies showed that to be economical, megafloat’s minimum storage capacity should be 300,000 cu m, or equal to that of a very large crude carrier. It would comprise two rectangular modules, each with 150,000 cu m of storage. Each module was earlier reported to measure 180 metres by 80 m by 15 m, although the final dimensions would eventually depend on the material used, sources said.

‘Essentially, it will comprise individual floating boxes, as oil is lighter than water,’ one source explained.

The consultants are expected to complete their FEED by Q1, and then prepare and call the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) tender by mid-year. The earlier cost estimate for building the megafloat was at least $180 million, although this will ultimately depend on the material used.

On the lead time needed to build the project, sources said that if the megafloat were to be made of steel, it would depend on the availability of local shipyards, while a concrete structure would likely have to be constructed in neighbouring countries.

JTC studies on the megafloat started back in 2007, with phase one covering a preliminary conceptual design of an attached-to-land VLFS.

This then progressed to phase two – covering areas like environmental impact, marine soil investigation and sea current monitoring – which was completed last year.