Singapore mulls Jurong Island underground petchem storage

18 April 2002 05:09  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (CNI)--JTC Corp, the Singapore landlord for the Jurong Island petrochemical complex, is close to completing a feasibility study on the idea of building rock caverns under the island to store petrochemicals.

A JTC Corp spokesperson said petrochemical companies had welcomed the prospect of using underground storage space, but she added that the project was still in its very early stages.

She said JTC Corp had almost completed a year of geological testing on rock formations under the island in cooperation with Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

The next stage would be to analyse the results of the testing before identifying a location for the caverns.

JTC Corp's efforts to tunnel into bedrock underneath Jurong Island have been inspired by a Ministry of Defence project to build an underground ammunition facility under a disused granite quarry in Singapore.

The Ministry's chief defence scientist Lui Pao Chuen said the successful construction of the facility debunked earlier studies that indicated underground infrastructure could cost three times as much as similar facilities above ground.

Professor Lui said if a decision were taken to go ahead with the Jurong Island project, the rock formation underneath the island had been shown to be suitable for the construction of caverns.

By: James Dallmeyer
+65 6780 4359

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