18 Missing After Indonesian Migrant Boat Capsizes
Rescuers were scouring the waters off Malaysia's southern coast on Monday for 18 people missing after a boat carrying migrants from Indonesia capsized, killing one woman, a Malaysian maritime official said. Southern Malaysian waterways, which border Indonesia and Singapore, include busy international shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds. Overloaded migrant boats also ply the waters and occasionally run into trouble. Twenty-five people, including a woman, were rescued after the boat, believed to be carrying 44 illegal immigrants, sank early on Monday, said Abu Bakar Idris, an official of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
Vopak Expands Pengerang Terminal
Royal Vopak and its joint venture partners intend to expand their independent storage terminal, Pengerang Independent Terminals Sdn Bhd (PITSB) in Pengerang, Johor in southern Malaysia. PITSB will be expanded with 430,000 cbm to a total capacity of 1.7 million cubic meters.The expansion which is subject to final formalities, is expected to be commissioned progressively from Q1 2019. PITSB provides storage, blending and distribution services for crude oil and clean petroleum products. The expansion relates to the storage of clean petroleum products. In total, 24 new tanks will be built ranging from 10.000 cbm to 25.000 cbm. In addition to the extra capacity, one extra berth will be taken into operation, bringing the total number of operating berths to six.
Mercuria, PetroChina Selling Offshore Stored Fuel Oil
Three to four tankers storing fuel oil, down from eight or nine. Independent trading house Mercuria and Chinese state oil giant PetroChina are selling fuel oil stored in vessels off Singapore and southern Malaysia on strong demand from the shipping and power sector, several trade sources said on Friday. The number of vessels storing fuel oil has halved from a month ago as Mercuria and PetroChina may have resold cargoes purchased over March to May, the sources said. Geneva-based Mercuria and PetroChina bought over 6 million tonnes of fuel oil over those months in oil pricing agency S&P Global Platts' trading period known as market-on-close (MOC). Their deals made up nearly three-quarters of the volumes traded in that period, according to data compiled by Reuters.
Vitol's Malaysia Terminal Suspends Ops after Spill
VTTI, the storage unit of world's largest oil trader Vitol, has suspended operations at its terminal in southern Malaysia following an oil spill, two industry sources said on Friday. An accident with coastal tanker Trident Star caused the oil spill on Wednesday, they said. The terminal at port of Tanjong Pelepas in Johor has a total storage capacity of 1.155 million cubic metres. It handles gasoline, jet fuel, gasoil, fuel oil and biofuels. Reporting by Florence Tan
Oil Glut Leaves Supertankers in a Huge Jam
It may be the world's biggest traffic jam. As ports struggle to cope with a global oil glut, huge queues of supertankers have formed in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, where some 200 million barrels of crude lies waiting to be loaded or delivered. The vessels, filled with oil worth around $7.5 billion at current market prices, would stretch for almost 40 km (25 miles) if formed up in one straight line. One captain with more than 20 years at sea told Reuters his tanker had been anchored off Qingdao in northeastern China since late March and was unlikely to dock before the end of this week, a frustrating delay of more than three weeks.
