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The Vitol Group has announced the signing of an agreement with Seaport World Wide Sdn Bhd under which Vitol will lease land to construct an oil terminal in Tanjung Bin, Malaysia.

Seaport World Wide Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned unit of power producer and port operator MMC Corp Bhd, signed the agreement with ATT Tanjung Bin Sdn Bhd, a unit of Vitol Terminal.

The terminal will be used for blending and storage of petroleum, crude oil and petrochemical products and will have initial capacity of 750,000 cubic metres. Vitol is also said to be interested in expanding the terminal capacity to 1.2 million cubic metres in future.

The project will include the construction of numerous jetties and other marine facilities, enabling the terminal to handle all tanker sizes up to the larger VLCC’s.

The investment for the first phase will be at least 1 billion Malaysian Ringgit (USD 300 million).

Commenting on the agreement, Vitol said "The strategic location of Tanjung Bin in relation to navigational routes, shipping anchorages and the regional pricing centre will make this an exciting addition to Vitol's portfolio of terminals".

Vitol’s current portfolio includes storage assets in Latvia, The Netherlands, Russia, Argentina and Fujairah, together with projects nearing completion in Nigeria and the United States.

In the fuel oil markets, approximately 50 percent of Vitol's business lies in trading feedstocks, bought by refiners for further upgrading.

The company has also been increasing its share of the bunkers market, forming new partnerships directly with fleet owners.

It has built an extensive network of storage terminals - including direct ownership in Rotterdam and Fujairah - and has recently acquired bunker supply vessels in order to have greater control over its bunker fuel deliveries to vessel owners.