Singapore needs another world-scale refinery

The Economic Development Board, a government agency that plans and executes strategies to make Singapore a business and investment hub, sees the need for the country to have at least one more world-scale refinery to secure its position as a global oil-refining hub, the Business Times reported. Singapore is currently ranked as the world’s third largest refining hub, but its total refining capacity from three refineries, owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Singapore Refining Co., of around 1.3 million barrels a day hasn’t changed much in the last decade. This has caused Singapore’s share of global refining capacity to slip to 1.4% from 2% previously. In contrast, China and India have steadily ramped up their shares to 8.1% and 3.4% respectively. (August 9, 2007)