Petroleum refining in Singapore

Refining is the foundation of Singapore's Energy & Chemicals sector — and the pillar the record has been missing. Singapore is one of the world's top three oil-refining centres, with roughly 1.5 million barrels a day of crude capacity concentrated on and around Jurong Island, feeding the region with transport fuels, base oils, bitumen and petrochemical feedstock and anchoring Asia's largest physical oil-trading and bunkering hub. The buyer's lens on a refinery is scale (barrels per day), configuration and complexity (simple hydroskimming versus deep-conversion with crackers and hydroprocessing), integration with downstream petrochemicals and lubricants, and increasingly its decarbonisation and feedstock-flexibility trajectory. The sector sits at roughly 22–23% of Singapore's manufacturing output, and the refineries are the tonnage core of it.

The field is three integrated complexes, and its ownership has shifted decisively from the Western majors toward Asian, Gulf and trader-backed owners. ExxonMobil runs Singapore's largest refining-and-chemicals complex at Jurong (Pioneer Road) and Pulau Ayer Chawan, 592,000 barrels a day, integrated with a steam cracker and the world's largest lubricant base-oil plant. The former Shell Pulau Bukom refinery — 300,000 barrels a day with a 1.1-million-tonne cracker — is now Aster Chemicals and Energy, owned by CAPGC, a joint venture of Indonesia's Chandra Asri and Glencore, after Shell's 2024 exit. And Singapore Refining Company (SRC) on Pulau Merbau processes 290,000 barrels a day, held 50/50 by Chevron and PetroChina's Singapore Petroleum Company. Two structural forces frame the moment: a China-driven global refining and petrochemical glut squeezing margins, and a pivot toward lower-carbon fuels and circular feedstocks. These are MNC/JV producers — for E&C production, the plant operators with real Singapore refineries are the record.