Jurong Island (JI), including having first-time dormitories housing up to 12,000 workers and reversible traffic flows into, and out of the island

Singapore is taking steps to better cater to more petrochemical investments and new plant facilities like the billion dollar crackers of Shell, and also possibly ExxonMobil.

It is beefing up infrastructural and logistics support on Jurong Island (JI), including having first-time dormitories housing up to 12,000 workers and reversible traffic flows into, and out of, the island at peak times.

‘We expect a doubling in the current 30,000 workers going to the island daily, to as many as 60,000 to 65,000, half of whom will be construction workers needed during the building peak starting in the second half of next year,’ said David Tan, director of JTC Corporation’s Specialised Parks Development Group.

Shell started building its estimated US$3 billion cracker in March, while ExxonMobil is expected to make its final investment decision any time now on its estimated US$4 billion second cracker complex.

‘JI in the next three to five years will be a hive of activity as the petrochemical crackers and associated downstream plants are built. We recognise that there will be challenges, that’s why we are planning forward to prevent any construction bottlenecks,’ Julian Ho, Economic Development Board’s executive director of energy, chemicals and engineering services said.

The two were briefing media on the upcoming measures at JI meant to boost logistics support like ease of transportation and a tightening up of security, as well as to facilitate building of upcoming projects.

Other mega projects on JI include the first phase, $700 million Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC) offering 1.47 million cubic metres of oil storage, which is expected to be operational in 2010.

A US$500 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the south-western part of JI is also targeted to be built by 2012.

In total, JTC will spend over $1 billion (including the $700 million on JRC) on infrastructural projects on JI in the coming years.

Among the infrastructural improvements are:

Following government’s recent raising of the dependency ratio for the construction and process industries from 1:4 to 1:5 (local:foreign workers) in April, JTC will now allow new worker dormitories to be built for the first time on JI. These will not be done by JTC but by the companies working on construction projects there, like the new chemical plants.

To further beef up the security of JI - gazetted as a Protected Area in 2001, following the 9-11 terror attacks in the US - JTC is spending up to $10 million to expand the island’s checkpoint to cater to the projected growth and increase in traffic flow. It has just called a tender for the construction of two more security towers on the island.

Work on the first phase checkpoint expansion has started and is targeted for completion this year-end, while the entire upgrading will be done by mid-2008.

The departure hall will also double as the arrival hall during the peak hours. After the upgrading, the average wait should not exceed 10 minutes on most days. There will also be reversible traffic flows on the Jurong Pier flyover leading in and out of JI in the morning and evening peak hours respectively to speed up the expected heavy traffic flow.

JI is currently served by two jetties at Banyan and Sakra which, among other purposes, allow contractors to load or unload equipment. ‘If there is a need, we will allow for more jetties,’ JTC’s Mr Tan said to a BT query that some investors were keen to have more jetties to facilitate construction of their projects.

Generally however, JTC feels that there is sufficient jetty capacity presently to cater to immediate future demand. Currently, JI - formed by the amalgamation of seven islands,and comprising 2,700 hectares - has drawn over 90 petrochemical/oil companies which have invested a total $27 billion and employ 12,000 workers. Further reclamation should see JI grow to its targeted 3,200 ha size.

Source : Business Times - 6 Aug 2007