The search for an operator for the underground Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC) oil storage will resume soon, with JTC Corporation expecting to call a re-tender for this in October, JTC director Heah Soon Poh, told BT.

He said that apart from its first confirmed customer, Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC), JTC has been talking to other potential players on Jurong Island to take up the remaining four-fifths of the available capacity at the $890 million phase 1 of the JRC project.

‘These are not oil traders, but other petrochemical companies on Jurong Island,’ said Mr Heah, who is the JTC director in charge of specialised parks development.

They will be like JAC, which will store its condensate feedstock at the underground cavern, with this piped to its US$2.4 billion aromatics complex which is scheduled to start commercial operations in October 2014.

JTC’s search for an operator first began as far back as 2007, when it pre-qualified some players including terminal operators like Vopak and Horizon Terminals in preparation for a qualifying tender at end-2007. But when the financial crisis of 2008/2009 hit, JTC had to call off that earlier operatorship search.

When asked whether more customers had been found for JRC since, Mr Heah said: ‘We are not just waiting for the appointed operator to do this, and JTC has been keeping things warm in the meantime by engaging potential users ourselves.’

The indication is that the parties are likely to commit nearer the time when phase 1 of JRC is ready in the first half of 2013.

The phase 1 project involves five caverns – four of which are large – providing a total 1.47 million cubic metres of storage.

Jurong Aromatics has committed to using one of the four large caverns there, but its aromatics project had been delayed by earlier financing issues and is now scheduled to come on-stream only in October, 2014 – or a year later than JRC’s start-up.

And JTC and Jurong Aromatics are in negotiations over some compensation for its later-than-scheduled use of the cavern space, JAC’s CEO Mehdi Adib told a media conference yesterday. JAC expects to keep about 30 days worth of inventory at the rock cavern for its aromatics plant, with some condensates for day-to-day use kept at on-site tankage, he said.

Trade & Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang, who officiated at the ground-breaking of JAC’s US$2.4 billion aromatics project yesterday, pointed to the rock cavern as a long-term investment which will offer companies an innovative underground storage solution on Jurong Island. It will free up land for higher-value manufacturing operations.