EDB says it wants to focus on enhancing existing refineries

Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) has no plans to attract a greenfield refinery investment and is focused instead on enhancing the competitiveness of the city state’s existing refining base, the government’s leading economic planning agency said in a statement. The EDB’s comment followed a report in The Business Times about plans by local oil trader Hin Leong to build a fourth refinery in the country. The agency said that it is looking to enhance the long-term competitiveness of Singapore’s existing refining base by focusing on three pillars: refinery upgrading to increase the complexity of existing refineries; integration with chemicals; and integration with lubricants. “We do not have a specific aim of attracting a greenfield refinery investment,” it said. (December 22, 2010)