Asia/Pacific News
Vitol to Sell Bunkers in Malaysia
Vitol Group plans to begin selling bunkers at Tanjung Pelepas in Johor, Malaysia in about six months, Bloomberg reports.
Khairul R. Ramly, managing director of Vitol Trading Malaysia Labuan Ltd., said the company wants to supply about half of the site's 3 million metric-tonnes-per-year bunker demand.
"We'll start small bunker deliveries at Tanjung Pelepas port," said Khairul.
"Maersk is a big shareholder, that’s the first target. Hopefully we’ll get 50 percent of the market, not in the first year, but slowly. People are calling us."
Fuel for the port will come from a 900,000-cubic-meter-capacity storage facility less than a mile away in Tanjung Bin that is owned by Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI), a joint venture between Vitol and MISC Bhd. (MISC) of Kuala Lumpur.
"Growing this bunkering business is our first priority, something that we should be very competitive in, because of where we are," Khairul said.
"It's five minutes for us to load a cargo from Tanjung Bin instead of one and a half hours from Singapore."
VTTI may expand capacity at the facility to as much as 1.6 million cubic meters and offer space to third parties in the third quarter of 2013.
Malaysia has been looking to grow its bunker business and attract ships away from its neighbor Singapore, the worlds biggest bunkering port by volume, and announced in September that it was offering tax incentives to attract oil trading and storage.
