Shell opens new lubricant and grease plant in Singapore Lube Park
Shell opened its third largest lubricants plant in the world and second largest in Asia-Pacific in Tuas, Singapore on November 1. The integrated lubricants and grease production facility is situated in a 10-hectare site adjacent to a shared facility with Sinopec and Total and their respective plants.
The plant can produce up to 430 million litres or 390 kilotonnes of lubricants and greases annually with further room for expansion.
“This state-of-the-art, highly automated facility in Singapore was built to support our business ambitions here in the APAC region. It serves as a strategic production hub, and will be the centrepiece of our lubricants supply chain network to reliably supply our world-class lubricants to millions of customers in the region. Asia represents over 40% of the world’s lubricants demand, and is home to half of the world’s largest lubricants markets,” said Shell Global Commercial Executive Vice President Huibert Vigeveno.
“This facility will also further strengthen our marine lubricant business’s presence here in Singapore, the world’s second busiest port,” said Vigeveno. Half of the plant’s production capacity is dedicated to marine lubricants. Singapore is the second busiest port in the world after Shanghai.
The plant doubles the size of Shell’s Woodlands North facility in Singapore which was built in 1963 and mothballed in May 2017.
“With a 50% increase in capacity and six-fold improvement in productivity over its previous plant, the new plant will be yet another great showcase of an Advanced Manufacturing facility that provides Singaporeans with good jobs,” said Lim Kok Kiang, assistant managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. “We are heartened by Shell’s commitment to improving productivity through the adoption of innovative technologies, which is aligned with the strategies of the Energy & Chemicals Industry Transformation Map.”
The new plant will be a production hub for products that will be shipped in bulk to more than 40 countries, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region.
