The tanker MT Yuan Qiu Hu, which can carry 270,000 tonnes of clean oil products, was chartered by oil trader Trafigura to load gasoil at Pengerang, industry sources said.

The tanker left Yeosu, South Korea on Sept. 26 and arrived at Pengerang on Thursday, Reuters ship tracking data showed. It is likely heading to West Africa, traders and shipbrokers said, although this could not be confirmed.

While the Pengerang terminal – which started operations in March – has received hundreds of vessels of various sizes offering both clean oil products and crude oil, this is the largest shipment for clean oil products, Vopak said.

Located in the southern state of Johor, just across the Johor Strait from the Singapore trading hub, the Pengerang site can hold about 1.3 million cubic metres (cbm) of storage for crude oil and oil products.

The terminal is a joint venture between Vopak, Dialog Group and the state government of Johor.

Fully Leased

The storage space has been fully leased, industry sources said. Vopak declined to comment on the matter.

BP has leased more than half of the crude oil storage space of 413,000 cubic metres from Vopak, the world’s largest independent storage company, while Total will use the remainder, sources have said.

Malaysia’s Petronas has leased tank space for naphtha, while traders BB Energy, Trafigura, Gunvor, Castleton Commodities and oil major Total has leased the space for gasoil, the sources added.

Trafigura is also storing light cycle oil (LCO) while Total is also storing gasoline, they said.

Oil pricing agency Platts included the Pengerang oil terminal in its Singapore price assessment process from May 1 for middle distillates and gasoline.

With inventory for middle distillates in Singapore hovering near four-year highs, traders have been looking at alternative sites in Malaysia for cheaper storage space.