JOHOR Port Berhad (JPB), a Member of MMC Group marked another milestone as the first port in Malaysia to have three interlink pipelines at its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal.

The three interlink pipelines made possible through a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) between JPB’s biggest LPG customers namely Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB), Boustead Petroleum Marketing (BHP) and NGC Energy Sdn Bhd (NGC). The JOA intensifies a closer strategic partnership between the three main LPG players in the country in undertaking the project of aligning and connecting the parties’ import pipelines.

The project will help the parties to mitigate high demurrage exposure, to achieve vessel optimisation and operation efficiency, as well as to have better stock management.

Similarly, the JOA also aims to optimise the overall product and operations cost through the flexibility of having access to all jetties, seamless product transportation arrangement amongst all parties from an efficient inter-tank transfer operation.

JPB CEO Shahrull Allam Shah Abdul Halim said that Johor Port is also receiving positive impact through this collaboration.

“We expect the terminal to operate faster and have a better vessel turnaround time. I commend the efforts and cooperation given by PDB, BHP and NGC. In business, companies compete against each other. However, the three key players in the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) business have come up with a solution for mutual benefit, through the interlink pipelines, first in the country,” he added in a statement.

As the premier southern gateway multipurpose port, Johor Port is also the storage and distribution hub of LPG in the southern region to meet the local demand. The multi-purpose port plays an important role as LPG southern hub to ensure the availability of this important gas for households and food establishments throughout southern region namely Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor.