With its storage facilities, the project will create a new and hitherto non-existent concept in East Asian oil market: commercial crude oil-in-place, said the New Straits Times.

"Producers will be able to store oil at TransPen, ranging from 30 to 90 days, paid by the net savings in logistics cost when the pipeline is fully operational," an industry observer said.

"This creates a tremendous potential. Oil, thus stored, becomes assets which can be monetised or securitized, creating liquidity in the East Asia oil market," the observer added.

When compared to the current 12 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil transiting through the Straits of Malacca and growing to about 20 million bpd by 2020, the 30 days of storage in TransPen will be sufficient to justify an oil exchange for East Asia in Malaysia, he said.

Noting that Malaysia Bank Negara and a Saudi bank have signed an accord on commodity Murabahah, the observer said middle Eastern and Malaysian banks can capitalise from this arrangement to help realise the proposed oil-structured derivatives, since oil is a viable financial asset to facilitate liquidity management and investment.

Being strategically located in the East Asian market, Malaysia is also in the time zone between the major consumers of Northeast Asia and the major producers of the Middle East.

"Thus, the Malaysian oil exchange will be able to function between the working hours of the 3 time zones, a major advantage when compared to London's IPE or New York's NYMEX," the observer said.