Vitol to Construct 750,000-Cubic-Meter Terminal in Iskandar Malaysia

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--ATT Tanjung Bin Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vitol Group (Geneva, Switzerland), recently entered into an agreement with Seaport World Wide Sdn Bhd (Johor, Malaysia) to set up an oil terminal in Tanjung Bin, Iskandar Malaysia. In the agreement, Seaport will lease about 120 acres of land for the project at a rate of $5.81 per square feet for a period of 30 years to ATT. The project is expected to entail an initial investment of more than $300 million. Seaport is a wholly owned subsidiary of MMC Corporation Bhd (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), a utilities and infrastructure group, which will have the option of acquiring a 20% stake in the proposed project.

The terminal to be built by ATT will be used as a blending and storage unit for petroleum, crude oil and petrochemical products. It will have an initial capacity of 750,000 cubic meters. ATT is also planning to construct five to 12 berths and marine jetties to handle tankers varying in size from 25,000 deadweight tons to 180,000 deadweight tons. It will also construct single buoy moorings to handle very large crude carriers.

Iskandar Malaysia was established in July 2006 as the main southern development corridor in Johor. It is strategically located at the crossroads of the East-West trade routes and is accessible by land, air and sea from the rest of Asia. In addition to the benefits of shipping anchorages and navigational routes, the site offers incentives like exemption from corporate tax and income tax for a period of 10 years. ATT is looking to benefit from reduced operating costs from economic incentives and also from other allied upcoming projects in the industrial region.

The Vitol Group is a $100 billion independent commodity trading firm and builds and operates chemical and oil terminals worldwide. It currently has oil terminals on four continents with an aggregate capacity of 5.5 million cubic meters. The company has storage assets in Argentina, Fujairah, Latvia, Russia and the Netherlands.

In June, the group forayed into bunkering operations on the basis of its existing fuel oil storage and blending operations in Fujairah. Vitol also entered into a memorandum of understanding with state-owned National Oil Corporation (Tripoli, Libya) to develop a storage terminal in Ras Lanuf. The terminal will function as a hub for receipt, storage, blending and export of petroleum products and will cater to both domestic and international markets. In May, Vitol acquired a majority stake in the Fujairah Refining Company Limited (Fujairah, United Arab Emirates). In April, Vitol acquired 25% of Carbon Resource Management Limited (London), which develops clean development mechanism projects in biomass, coal-mine methane and wind energy.

In February, the company entered into an agreement with Nido Gas Company Limited (Apapa, Nigeria) to set up a joint venture gas firm, Navgas Limited, for the importing, bottling and retail sales of liquefied petroleum gas at a total investment of $50 million. The joint venture will build a storage facility at Nido Gas' premises in Apapa with an annual throughput of 250,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas. In January, Vitol agreed to purchase Pacific Fuel Trading Corporation (El Segundo, California), a marketer of jet fuel, from Japan Airlines Corporation (Tokyo).

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.