SINGAPORE, May 26 (Reuters) - The Singapore Exchange will launch a fuel oil futures contract in the second half of this year in an attempt to boost Singapore's role as an energy centre, the trade minister said on Tuesday.

The contract, a revival of a similar one operated in the early 1990s, will complement physical trading and boost risk management infrastructure in the city-state, the world's largest marine port, Lim Hng Kiang told a traders summit.

"This will further develop the fledgling commodities derivatives sector in Singapore and strengthen our commodities trading hub status," said Lim, confirming a Reuters report last month.

Singapore is looking to a liquid exchange to offer a relatively better regulated environment and a more transparent pricing mechanism, the head of International Enterprise (IE) had said.

Industry sources had said the contract will be for the 380-centistoke grade, or bunker fuel, to be traded on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, which means the cargoes can be loaded from any shore-based terminal in the city-state.

Singapore is the world's largest bunker fuel port with 3 million tonnes traded each month, while overall monthly fuel oil volumes transacted averaged 5 million tonnes.

But past efforts to launch similar fuel oil futures contracts have had dismal results.

The then Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX) launched a fuel oil futures contract - Asia's first energy contract - in 1989. But the contract withered by the mid-1990s due to poor liquidity and investor interest.

Another Singapore 380-cst fuel oil contract, launched on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) some years ago, also failed to live up to its early hype, but there are plans to revive it.

(Reporting by Maryelle Demongeot; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)