Fuel demand to rise with new KL airport
Fuel demand to rise with new KL airport
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Malaysia's new Kuala Lumpur international airport, now being built, is expected to see passenger traffic rise 10 percent a year and jet fuel demand rise 13-15 percent a year from 1998, a project manager said yesterday.
"Based on that projection, we will position ourselves in the market and garner more airlines to operate at Sepang (the new airport)," Mohd Nazeri Abdul Karim, the airport project control manager in charge of fuels, told Reuters.
"Our prime target is to make Sepang a regional hub apart from being the main entrance into Malaysia," he said.
The existing Subang Airport, near Kuala Lumpur, had estimated passenger traffic of 15 million in 1996. Jet fuel demand was 1.27 billion liters, or 3.5 million per day, Nazeri said.
The new Sepang airport is expected to start full operation in December 1998 and take over from Subang.
Nazeri told an aviation fuels conference in Singapore that passenger traffic at Sepang was projected at 18 million a year and jet fuel demand was expected at 1.43 billion liters a year, or 3.92 million liters daily.
Passenger traffic in 2003 is seen rising to 25 million, while jet fuel demand is projected at 1.71 billion liters or 4.69 million liters a day.
Passenger traffic is forecast to rise to 35 million in 2007 and to 45 million in 2013.
Jet fuel consumption would jump to 2.63 billion liters, or 7.21 million liters daily, in 2007, reaching 3.36 billion liters a year or 9.20 million liters a day by 2013.
By 2020, passenger traffic in Malaysia is forecast at 60 million, while jet fuel demand would grow to nearly 4.0 billion liters, or 10.84 million liters daily.
Nazeri said the first phase of the airport project, which is about 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kuala Lumpur, is due for completion by September 1997. The second phase is scheduled for completion by 2012.
The airport will have two terminals with the ability to handle 35 million passengers, and a third terminal will follow by 2012.
"Most of the development is on schedule and we expect the overall costs to be about 5-10 percent below the budgeted 10 billion ringgit, because we use many local contractors and expertise," he said.
Mohd Nor Pilus, project manager for the airport fueling system, said aircraft traffic at Sepang in 1998 is projected at 34 aircraft movements per hour, compared with 22 per hour at Subang in 1995 and 29 in 1996. Aircraft movement in Sepang is forecast at 56 per hour by 2020.
To cater for the rise in aircraft movements and demand for jet fuel, a joint-venture has been formed between state-owned oil trading firm Petco, Malaysian Airlines System, and the airport operator Malaysia Airport Berhad (MAB), to build a fueling complex. This venture will be officially set up as a company in May.
The 105-million-ringgit fuel complex would have eight storage tanks under the first phase, each with a capacity of 14,000 cubic metres. Four more tanks will be built under the second phase, Mohd Nor said.
A pipeline is being built by Petronas and Shell Refining Co Bhd to channel various oil products from their respective refineries in Malacca and Port Dickson to the Klang Valley Depot Terminal. The terminal will distribute oil products throughout Malaysia, while a spur pipeline will feed jet fuel to the new airport fueling complex.