Pulau Busing Explained

Pulau Busing
Translit Lang1:Name
Translit Lang1 Type:Chinese
Translit Lang1 Info:布星岛
Translit Lang1 Info1:bùxīng dǎo
Translit Lang1 Type4:Malay
Translit Lang1 Info4:Pulau Busing
Translit Lang1 Type5:Tamil
Pushpin Map:Singapore
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of Pulau Busing within Singapore
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:Singapore
Population Density Km2:auto

Pulau Busing is a restricted-access island and a hub for oil shipping located off the southwestern coast of Singapore. The island is occupied by Tankstore Ltd, a petroleum storage company. Heavily industrialised, the island is home to oil and chemical storage facilities, at least one marine offshore terminal, and a fuel oil refinery.

Name

It appears as Po. Busing in Franklin & Jackson's 1828 Plan of Singapore.

is simply Malay for "island". Busing comes perhaps from the Malay Malay: busung [[wikt:pasir#ms|pasir]] or Malay: busong pasir ("a mound of sand or a dune") or from ("a turning point").

Description

It is north of Pulau Hantu. It is west of Pulau Bukom, which is a similarly reclaimed island used for oil storage.

Pulau Busing is next to the shipping channel and had a natural deep waterfront harbour of deeper than 16 metres.

There are 112 tanks (with a total capacity of 2 million cubic metres) on the island's tank farm (oil terminal).[1]

The only access to the island (limited to authorized personnel) is by ferry that departs from the Pasir Panjang ferry terminal.

History

Together with Jurong Island and neighbouring offshore islands, the island is part of the integrated storage and trading hub that was developed by Jurong Town Corporation, which leases it to Tankstore, an oil storage company.[1]

Before reclamation, Pulau Busing had a land area of 2.5 hectares. It has seen major land reclamation to its southern shores.

Up to the 1980s, it was still fringed by coral reefs on its northern and southern shores. Pulau Busing is an important feeding and roosting ground for migratory shore birds.[2]

On 20 March 2018, a petroleum tank on the island caught fire. It took 128 firefighters from the Singapore Civil Defence Force six hours to extinguish the fire.[3]

Notes and References

  1. News: Blaze on Pulau Busing oil storage tank put out after 6 hours . TODAYonline . March 20, 2018 . The land on Pulau Busing is leased by JTC to a petroleum storage company. JTC does not own or manage Pulau Busing..
  2. http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1438_2009-02-06.html "Singapore Infopedia"
  3. News: Firefighters Put Out Tank Farm Blaze in Singapore . The Maritime Executive . 2018-03-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180322032105if_/https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/photos-firefighters-put-out-tank-farm-blaze-in-singapore . 2018-03-22.