ExxonMobil bets on Asia, hires big here

We currently have 2,600 employees here and we expect that will grow to 2,800 next year,’ said Derk Jan Hartgerink, manufacturing director of Singapore Chemical Plant (SCP), EM’s first US$2 billion-plus petrochemical complex. The recruitment process for the 400 or so engineers and technicians needed for complex jobs at its second Singapore petrochemical project began two years ago, when the world’s largest oil company first gave the green light to the investment in September 2007. ‘Through 2015, we expect 60% of the growth in petrochemical demand to be in Asia, with over a third of that growth from China alone,’ Mr Hartgerink told BT. EM’s second complex, the Singapore Parallel Train (SPT), boasts a one million tons per year (tpy) ethylene cracker, which will be the largest here. EM’s SPT is one of two new petrochemical complexes being built on Jurong Island, with the other being Shell’s new US$3 billion 800,000 tpy cracker, scheduled to start up early next year. Apart from EM, another petrochemicals/oil investor continuing to hire here is Finland’s Neste Oil which is building a $1.2 billion plant in Tuas to produce 800,000 tons of biodiesel annually, mainly from palm oil. (July 4, 2009)