* Malaysia plans huge oil hub next door to Singapore
* Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex could challengeSingapore
* But development agency wants to cooperate with Singapore
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Malaysia is willing to workwith Singapore to become part of a regional oil pricing area,including offering land for storage the island state lacks, thehead of a Malaysian state body coordinating a major new oil hubsaid.
Despite being an oil and gas exporter, Malaysia lackssufficient storage and refineries to allow it to act as apricing hub like Singapore, Europe's ARA hub (Amsterdam,Rotterdam and Antwerp) or Houston in the United States.
In a bid to remedy this, Malaysia is building the PengerangIntegrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) at its southern most pointin Johor state, about 10 km east of Singapore.
The first phase of the project, led by state-owned firmPetronas as well as private firms Dialog Group and Vopak, is expected to be completed by2019.
Singapore is Asia's leading oil and petrochemical tradinghub, but a lack of land is capping further expansion.
"We should work with Singapore. We can offer new land, whichSingapore doesn't have," said Mohd Yazid Ja'afar, chiefexecutive of the state run Johor Petroleum DevelopmentCorporation (JPDC), which is in charge of coordinating the oilhub developments.
Commodity price reporting agency Platts has said itis "actively studying the evolution of the geographical coverageof its 'FOB Singapore' refined oil products benchmarks" due to"the limited possibility of further expansion of Singapore'son-land oil storage."
Platts already includes some Malaysian assets located nearbyin its FOB (free on board) Singapore price, but Singapore'ssites on Jurong Island still far outweigh them.
"There's an idea by Platts for a FOB Straits (price). Thatwould involve Johor," said J'afar, who was speaking during aninterview with Reuters this week. He added that any cooperationhad to be on terms in which all sides got a fair share ofprofits.
Inclusion of a large integrated hub in Malaysia would shiftthe balance towards a more regional hub.
Singapore's agency for International Enterprise (IE), whichis in charge of attracting commodities companies to theisland-state, was not immediately available for comment. IE haspreviously said that "Singapore recognises the growing energyrequirements of Asia and the continued importance of oil storageterminals to support the trading needs of the region."
(Additional reporting by Jane Xie; Editing by Ed Davies)
* Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex could challengeSingapore
* But development agency wants to cooperate with Singapore
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Malaysia is willing to workwith Singapore to become part of a regional oil pricing area,including offering land for storage the island state lacks, thehead of a Malaysian state body coordinating a major new oil hubsaid.
Despite being an oil and gas exporter, Malaysia lackssufficient storage and refineries to allow it to act as apricing hub like Singapore, Europe's ARA hub (Amsterdam,Rotterdam and Antwerp) or Houston in the United States.
In a bid to remedy this, Malaysia is building the PengerangIntegrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) at its southern most pointin Johor state, about 10 km east of Singapore.
The first phase of the project, led by state-owned firmPetronas as well as private firms Dialog Group and Vopak, is expected to be completed by2019.
Singapore is Asia's leading oil and petrochemical tradinghub, but a lack of land is capping further expansion.
"We should work with Singapore. We can offer new land, whichSingapore doesn't have," said Mohd Yazid Ja'afar, chiefexecutive of the state run Johor Petroleum DevelopmentCorporation (JPDC), which is in charge of coordinating the oilhub developments.
Commodity price reporting agency Platts has said itis "actively studying the evolution of the geographical coverageof its 'FOB Singapore' refined oil products benchmarks" due to"the limited possibility of further expansion of Singapore'son-land oil storage."
Platts already includes some Malaysian assets located nearbyin its FOB (free on board) Singapore price, but Singapore'ssites on Jurong Island still far outweigh them.
"There's an idea by Platts for a FOB Straits (price). Thatwould involve Johor," said J'afar, who was speaking during aninterview with Reuters this week. He added that any cooperationhad to be on terms in which all sides got a fair share ofprofits.
Inclusion of a large integrated hub in Malaysia would shiftthe balance towards a more regional hub.
Singapore's agency for International Enterprise (IE), whichis in charge of attracting commodities companies to theisland-state, was not immediately available for comment. IE haspreviously said that "Singapore recognises the growing energyrequirements of Asia and the continued importance of oil storageterminals to support the trading needs of the region."
(Additional reporting by Jane Xie; Editing by Ed Davies)
