TMD to ease queue for bunker fuel in Labuan
Published on: Wednesday, November 19, 2014
.jpg "TMD to ease queue for bunker fuel in Labuan")
LABUAN: Asian Supply Base (ASB) has welcomed the foray of TMD Bunker Labuan Sdn Bhd as a solution to the bottlenecks at its jetties and quay wharves.With an average of 800 vessels berthing at its port monthly for bunker fuel, ASB CEO Dato' Harris Tan said it was simply impossible to serve every one at the same time."With the timely arrival of TMD Bunker, it would enhance our cost effectiveness and efficiency as the sole integrated logistics hub of the oil and gas industry," he said in a joint press conference with TMD founder and director Tan Sri Dr Jason Goh Teck Chai.
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Harris continued by saying that the ASB management could not sit listening to the problems of its clients but to look for alternatives."The days of clients coming to us is over, we have to go out to them. In this case, we have to leverage on TMD to supply ship-to-ship (STS). Furthermore, we don't have enough land to build mega tanks with a capacity of 2,000 tanks," he said, adding that the trend is to go out to sea to supply them.Although ASB had increased its berths to 18 vessels, the queue for the purpose of bunkering was still long.TMD, established in 2010, began its venture with Kemaman Port as its launching pad. Earlier this year, it expanded to Pasir Gudang in Johor.
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The venture into Labuan would increase its turnover to RM400 million a year, according to TMD's Goh."The size and potential of business is huge compared to Kemaman, which serves 250 ships compared to 800 in Labuan," Goh said.
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Many of its clients at ASB are also TMD's customers in Kemaman. This directly gave the company a leg up in establishing itself in the most established O&G industry in East Malaysia.On its first years of operation in Labuan, Goh was confident of hitting least 10 million litres and double the following year in bunker sale."We see our partnership with ASB will boost our bunker sale to 25 million litres."It has a fleet of five vessels to provide STS, which is like a mobile petrol station, going wherever the ships that need bunker fuel.TMD has the licence to supply bunker fuel under the Petroleum Development Act 1974.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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