Tank Storage Asia, a leading event for terminal operators, oil companies, traders and regulators in the Asian market, to be held in Singapore will provide an opportunity for delegates to gain insights on a local and international scale.

The two-day conference will be held on September 29 and 30, and will take place at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Tushar Tarun Bansal, head of Oil, East of Suez at FGEnergy will be headlining day one of the show, talking about ‘Changes to Trade Flows in Asia’.

He will show how the shale revolution in the US has instigated a shift in global trade flows and why the African market is becoming a key player in the export of light crude, especially within the Asian market.

Tan Wooi Leong, vice president for oil and gas at Jurong Consultants will be presenting ‘Creating the space for the demand for storage in Singapore’.

Despite a consistently strong demand for storage in Singapore, the scarcity of land is restricting new projects. In his talk, Leong will explore the possibility of using underground storage caverns, as they allow for large scale storage, freeing up precious Singapore land. He will also explore the possibility of storing bulk liquid on floating tankers, by using concrete barges to store petrochemicals.

Broadening the discussions to a future forecast of the Asian fuel market will be Yaw Yan Chong, head of oil research and forecast (Asia) at Thomson Reuters Singapore. He will specifically focus on what the effects of new sulphur emissions regulations are having on the marine fuel market.

Also looking forward will be Rajiv Biswas, IHS chief economist at Asia-Pacific. He will analyse the risks and opportunities that come with the changing economic and energy landscape across Asia.

He will detail what to expect from the new Indonesian government, explain what has been behind India’s turnaround into an attractive investment opportunity and will predict the future for the Chinese and Vietnamese markets.

Jose Maria Cuadro Saez, senior vice president supply chain at Spanish Petroleum Company (Cepsa); and Malcolm Smith, business development manager at Techflow Marine will provide information about improved terminal efficiency on site.

They will look at the current problems with loading and unloading, plus the disadvantages of the current accepted industy methods, and will then explore the benefits of simultaneous loading of multi-products and the reduction of loading operation times, sometimes by up to 50 to 60 per cent.

Staying with the topic of efficiency will be Alzakri Ekhwan, principal engineer of static equipment at Petronas, will examine how to extend a tank’s lifetime via efficient tank maintenance practices.

He will explore how to deal with corrosion under insulation problems around and below wind girders, plus he will look at the technical approaches of floating roof pontoon maintenance.

Thomas Ng, chairman at the Global Ports Forum, will present ‘Port developments across Asia and their impact on storage strategies’.

His talk will encompass the changing geopolitics between the US and Asia, an overview of the new maritime silk road and look at what it means for the sector. He will conclude his speech by detailing the future plans for the Asian Infrastructure investment bank.
 
Tank Storage Asia 2015 not only features a strong conference programme, but also a packed exhibition hall, with over 60 suppliers from across the globe using the show to launch products and services into the Asian market, it added. – TradeArabia News Service