Hyundai to build underground oil storage facility in Singapore
Construction of Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC), the first underground oil storage facility in Singapore and Southeast Asia,
will finally begin by year end and cost some $ 890 mm.
JTC awarded the first phase construction contract to Korean firm Hyundai Engineering and Construction, which will
complete the first two caverns by 2013. This comes after the tender was called for in late 2007. The three remaining
caverns will be completed in five years, said JTC.
The complexity and design of the project has pushed up costs, originally estimated to be around $ 700 mm, said a
spokesperson from JTC Corp. The project's initial $ 50 mm phase, which consists of constructing two access shafts and
start-up galleries for the storage caverns, is nearly completed.
The media got a peek at the underground rock cavern, via an access shaft that went as deep as 132 metres below the
ground.
When completed, the first phase of the cavern will consist of 8 km of tunnels with five caverns, each with two
storage galleries.
Each storage gallery is typically nine-storeys high, and large enough to contain water from more than 64
Olympic-sized swimming pools. It will be able to hold 1.47 mm cm of oil underground.
