Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang announced Wednesday that the city state will build an underground chemical storage facility on Jurong Island, the country's petrochemical center.

Work on the project, known as the Jurong Rock Caverns, will start later this year and the first caverns are expected to be ready in 2009, according to the minister, who spoke at the opening ceremony for Dutch company Royal Vopak's fourth petroleum and chemicals terminal.

"The caverns have the possibility of integration with aboveground storage, and will allow for optimization of the overall storage capacity on Jurong Island. This will result in land savings and offer benefits of enhanced safety and security," Lim noted.

It is expected that the facility will help enhance Singapore's position as a leading chemicals hub, which is now one of the world 's top three refining centers and the third largest oil trading hub and bunker port.

The output of the chemicals industry contributed over 31 percent of Singapore's total manufacturing output to reach 67.3 billion Singapore dollars (about 41.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005.

Royal Vopak is a world leading independent tank terminal operator specializing in the storage and handling of liquid and gaseous chemical and oil products. It has 73 terminals and a total storage capacity of over 20 million cubic meters worldwide.

Source: Xinhua