July 8, 2015 [Reuters] - Independent storage operator Oiltanking's new facility in Karimun, Indonesia will be ready in the fourth quarter of 2015, delayed from an initial planned start-up in the third quarter, a senior company official said on Wednesday.
The terminal will start up at the earliest in October or November, said Sjoerd Boer, vice president at Oiltanking Asia-Pacific’s commercial division. The delay is not major and is not unusual for a project of this size, he said.
Oiltanking Karimun, located about 25 nautical miles from Asia’s main oil trading hub in Singapore, is a 760,000 cubic metres terminal and the company’s second biggest storage project in Asia in terms of capacity.
Half of the tanks will be set aside for heavy products such as fuel oil, and the other half will hold clean oil products, Boer said.
A substantial portion of the space will be leased by commodities trader Gunvor – a minority stakeholder in the project – though Boer declined to say how much.
Oiltanking has a more than 60 percent stake in the $270 million Karimun storage facility, with Gunvor and an Indonesian firm holding the rest.
Oiltanking is in talks with other companies to lease the storage space not leased by Gunvor, Boer said.
The Karimun terminal is designed to service the Singapore trading and shipping hub and tap growing oil demand in Asia.
With Singapore unable to commit more land to commercial storage to serve trading companies, Indonesia and Malaysia have stepped up their own investments into oil and chemicals storage infrastructure.
The Karimun terminal will be supported by four jetties and has a draft limit of 18 metres in the approaching channel, which can be expanded to 21 metres if required.
The terminal can accommodate a partially-laden very large crude carrier (VLCC) or a fully laden Suezmax. Adjacent to the site is a plot of land big enough for about 500,000 cubic metres of additional storage to be added in the next phase.
