Shell starts building new lube oil, grease plants in SW Singapore

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd has started building its new lube oil blending plant (LOBP) and grease manufacturing plant (GMP) at Tuas in southwest Singapore, the company announced on Monday.

Construction commenced in October and the plants are targeted for completion by 2015, a Shell spokesperson said in a e-mailed statement to ICIS.

The plants are being built adjacent to the lube park shared facilities, built and operated by Singapore Lube Park Pte Ltd, a joint venture company between Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd, Sinopec Lubricant (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Total Oil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.

Upon completion, Shell’s new LOBP and GMP plants in Tuas will replace the company’s existing facilities at Woodlands in northern Singapore, the company said in the statement.

“We currently supply about 240 kilo tonnes/annum [240,000 tonnes/year] of lubricants and greases to more than 30 countries in Asia and Middle East,” the spokesperson from Shell said.

“We are looking at an increase of approximately 40% in capacity for our new plants in Tuas,” the spokesperson added.

Shell said that the capacity expansion is needed to support the expected demand growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections