KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): Johor Port Bhd, a member of MMC Corp Bhd, has inked an agreement with Petronas LNG Ltd (PLL) to provide marine services at attractive tariff for vessels that receive gassing up and cooling down (GUCD) services at the latter's Regasification Terminal Pengerang.

"The GUCD is a specialised service of bringing the storage tanks on liquefied natural gas carrier (LNG) vessels to a natural environment and cooling it down to cryogenic temperature (minus 160 degrees Celsius). The GUCD process is a requirement for LNG vessels to ensure safe loading of the next LNG cargo," Johor Port said in a statement today.

Johor Port and PLL — a unit of Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) — have signed a marine services agreement to effect the collaboration, which is hoped to encourage more vessel operators and owners to make use of the service at the Pengerang terminal, taking advantage of its strategic location and close proximity to shipyards in both Malaysia and Singapore.

Johor Port said it currently provides a range of marine services for all types of vessels, including tug and pilotage, berthing and unberthing, shifting, oil rig movement/oil rig positioning and repositioning, dockwise offload and onload, ship-to-ship transfer, dead ship tow, anchoring and lay-up, as well as docking and undocking of very large cruise carriers (VLCC).

"Johor Port has well-trained and experienced pilots to handle all types of vessels, and [is] well equipped with supporting resources like tug boats, mooring boats and mooring gangs that are at par with other developed ports in the region," said Johor Port's chief executive officer Shahrull Allam Shah Abdul Halim.

Johor Port has an existing working relationship with Petronas dating back to 2015 in the Material Off Loading Facility (MOLF) project in Teluk Ramunia and Tanjung Setapa. It also has a 25-year concession to operate and manage the Petronas Solid Product Terminal in Pengerang, which includes the provision of operating equipment, systems and manpower.

MMC Corp shares closed 5.8% or six sen higher at RM1.10, raising its market capitalisation to RM3.35 billion.