While onshore storage has more than doubled in three years, bunker fuel sales have increased at a rate of less than 50%, according to Pang.
”The (storage) industry has overshot a bit, and (capacity) is just a little more than what is required,” he said at the conference organised by Bunkerworld.
“Each terminal can afford to do 12 to 15 turns a year”
Over 5 million cubic metres (m³) of storage capacity was added over three years, putting the current storage capacity on the island-state at approximately 8.1 million m³.
The total value of offshore physical oil traded through Singapore doubled to $300 billion in 2008, from about $150 billion in 2005 due in part to the increase in storage space.
Singapore’s terminals are doing 8 to 10 turns a year, a rate that is ”considered reasonably comfortable” but ”not efficiently utilising” the available storage capacity, Pang noted.
”Each terminal can afford to do 12 to 15 turns a year, and 12 turns will be very, very comfortable,” he said.
Horizon Singapore has a total onshore storage capacity of 1.24 million m³. 60% of the total capacity goes to storing heavy fuel oil, or bunkers, and 40% is dedicated for clean petroleum products.
Saeed Khoory, group chief executive of Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), owner of Horizon Singapore, indicated earlier this year that his company’s terminal in Singapore should be able to achieve 1 to 1.2 turns per month.
Meanwhile, Singapore bunker sales are expected to hit another record this year, after setting a historic high of 34.9 million metric tonnes (mt) in 2008.
Bunker sales for the first nine months of this year reached 27.2 million mt