Singapore, 29 July (Argus) — China's biggest energy firm state-controlled PetroChina has become the sole tenant of the new Jurong Port Tank Terminal (JPTT) storage facility in Singapore.
JPPT, a 60:40 joint venture between Jurong Port and German tank storage operator Oiltanking, was inaugurated today after starting partial operations on 1 April. The facility has about 252,000m³ (1.6mn bl) of capacity in its first phase and has so far discharged, blended and loaded more than 1mn t of products, JPPT chairman Ooi Boon Hoe said.
The terminal has a direct pipeline connection to Jurong Island, where many of Singapore's refineries are located. JPPT will have total capacity of around 550,000m³ when a second phase is completed at an unspecified date. It will be able to handle about 7mn t/yr of clean petroleum products and have the capability to take Suezmax vessels up to 180,000dwt.
PetroChina's local subsidiary SPC owns 50pc of the 290,000 b/d Singapore Refining (SRC) plant on Jurong Island. The Chinese firm also has gasoline storage tanks in Pulau Sebarok off Singapore's southern coast. It is unclear if there are any plans to move operations entirely to JPTT.
PetroChina has been expanding its overseas downstream operations amid oversupply in China's domestic products market. SPC opened its first service station in Myanmar (Burma) earlier this year, while PetroChina started subsidising gasoline exports this month after previously only giving subsidies for diesel.