The industry isn’t dying. This is a normal oil business cycle. The price of oil is down so the business slows. The oil companies would love to get the price back up and one of their enemies is alternative ways of producing power and the other is reducing global warming. They have spent and will continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars fighting those two enemies in order to increase their profits. Oil is too valuable a finite resource to burn when other means are available.
In 1965 Singapore was thrown out of Malaysia. “Everybody” though that little Singapore, without any natural resources and no hinterland, would stagnate and come begging to re-join at the Tunku’s terms. It didn’t happen.
PS> Even LKY was afraid that his mini-Republic could not survive alone.
in 1971 the British forces left from “East of Suez”, including their bases in Singapore.
“Everybody” thought that Singapore would stagnate without it’s biggest employer and protector from hostile neighbours. It didn’t happen.
Shell did not fully pull out of Singapore in 2024, but completed the sale of its Singapore refinery and petrochemical assets to a Chandra Asri-Glencore joint venture. Shell still maintaining a regional hub for its trading and marketing businesses and continuing to supply energy products and grow its retail network and EV charging infrastructure. The sale is part of Shell’s global strategy to high-grade its chemicals and products business and invest in the energy transition.
Asri-Glencore is now upgrading the facilities exactly because they do not think that the petroleum business in Singapore is stagnating. It is happening,
PS> It must be awful to ALWAYS see the worst possible outcome on every subject. 
Shell and several other European oil companies are investing in renewable energy.
They must have a different world view than the big US oil giants.
They also invest a little in renewable energy but they want the same government subsidies that they get for oil production, not happening yet. But they did recently get another tax break from Trump which made them happy. The oil industry gets a high return on the bribes paid to politicians in the US. Been that way for decades.
The Stores Basin at Sembawang continued to function as a Commonwealth berth and training of the nascent Singapore Navy was taking place with a number of agreements in place. Singapore wasn’t exactly thrown to the wolves, there was too much money tied up there.
Yes there were and is activity at Sembawang, used both by Commonwealth and US Navy vessels and support vessels.
The urgency of building a modern Singaporean Defence Force after the British withdrawal became VERY clear though, even if both Australia and New Zealand stepped in to fill the gap.(As did the Israelis, but that was done quietly, not to upset the neighbours)
When Shell sold their retail business in Australia they didnt write into the contract that the owners had to buy shell products, so they didnt. That caused the idling of one refinery in Singapore as it was mostly supplying oz. Not sure that was planned or not?
The new owners went to Sth Korea for supply
Still running, US supply ships coming in and out often
Other small navy vessels now and again
“Not sure what was planned, or not” (planned):
Are you referring to the sale in Oz, the sale of the refining and petrochemical business in Singapore? Or both?
The new owner (in Oz or Singapore?) gets WHAT supplied from South Korea?
Sorry if that was not clear
When Shell sold their retail business and obviously a license on the trade mark they did not write into the contract that the purchaser had to buy Shell oil and fuel products, they didnt and that caused the idling of one refinery in Singapore.
The new owners in OZ went to Sth Korea to buy product.
What I was getting at was shells refining business in Singapore was shrinking
You mean the buyers (Aster/Glencore) bought a dud? I know that the Shell refinery at Pu. Bukom is old (Singapore’s first oil refinery, started 1961) It has been upgraded many times. It was Shell’s biggest capacity refinery, with a capacity of 500K b/d.
If the buyer thought it was a shrinking business, why do they invest in a new SBM and pipeline?
Shell had more than one source and it took a hit with the Australian sale to Vitol as explained to me by a trader here in Singapore
That was in 2014. You mean Shell didn’t get over any loss of sales to Oz of petroleum products refined in Singapore in 10 years?
No mas on Singapore. Have we not learnerd enough about this Island Nation yet??
Feel free to skip this thread since you are not interesting in learning anything about “them foreign places”. There are many threads on the forum that should suit you better.
Been there many times. A wonderful Port. Just don’t need to read about over and over again.
Simple, if you don’t like a thread just don’t open any posts in that thread. That is what I do. There are a lot of threads on this forum about subjects I’m not interested in. I just skip them.
Thank you for that. Yes I agree, Singapore is a “wonderful port”, a port I first visited in 1959, when it was still a British colony.
I lived in the Republic of Singapore from 1967 until retiring in 2016 and travelled back there for a few months every year, until 2020. We left just before the Covid lockdown and haven’t been back since.
PS> It is still “home” in our minds.
I watched the place “grow up”, from a place “you could smell before you could see it”, with great problems because of poverty, lack of employment, triads and communist agitation.
Racial and religious diversity, speaking different languages and going to different schools, together with social status differences, caused riots in 1969.
Introducing English as the language of teaching and business + building modern housing, were all races lived together, made for a homogeneous population that see themselves as “Singaporean” first, Chinese, Malay, India, or other second.
I don’t know when you visited, or for how long, but the clean, gleaming metropolis that is Singapore of today, is a far cry from the “backwater” it was in the early days of independence.
It was not a given that Singapore would succeed as an independent “island state”, but thanks to good governance and a hard working “pioneer generation” the problems of the early days was overcome and the present generation is reaping the fruit of their work.
Sorry to write more about a place you don’t want to read about.
Now you can follow my advise at the top and ignore this thread forthwith.
Cant say but they decided they dont want to be in the refining business anymore.
One of my friends nephews with Masters in Finance and 2 great interships cant get a job for any money.
Another buddy said his boss said no more graduates its ai and the older guys in IT.
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‘No longer proud to be Singaporean’: Young Singaporean slams system that loves ‘foreigners and the rich’ more than locals
SINGAPORE: Between the brutal job market, influx of foreign talents, sky-high housing prices, and now yet another round of transport fare hikes, one 25-year-old man has thrown his hands up and declared that he’s simply “no longer proud to call himself a Singaporean.”
In a post on the r/SingaporeRaw subreddit, the man shared that he used to be filled with national pride, especially after completing his National Service. He said he served as “combat fit,” went through all the madness with his “bros” in a decent but exhausting unit, and despite the pain, he genuinely felt proud of wearing the uniform back then.
However, after stepping into the working world, that pride began to fade as he came to feel that locals are no longer valued in their own country. He remarked that those in power seem to prefer “foreigners more than locals, love the rich from other countries, while its own citizens suffer doing Grab deliveries and working overtime.”
He continued, “Eh, it’s okay, come enjoy some GST vouchers, enjoy some CDC vouchers. But how can we enjoy the loss of identity, when every day I go to work, I don’t even hear Singlish most of the time now?”
“Singapore may be a country I call home, where the rivers flow or whatever… but I no longer feel proud to call myself a Singaporean, and it’s diving deeper into a depressing and sad state. [I’ve stepped] into an unknown job market, where money is so unstable, housing is so expensive, and transport fares are increasing whenever the government wants to.”
“Every country has its own problems.”
In the discussion thread, numerous Singaporean Redditors echoed the post author’s sentiments, stating that they, too, are growing weary of being undervalued in their own homeland.
One said, “Same. You and me. I do not feel proud to be a Singaporean.”
Another wrote, “We are about the same age, and I share and empathise with your thinking. I too was once proud and patriotic to call this place my home, but in recent years, I have begun to question what really is Singapore?”
“It is unfortunate that our age group (those born in 95-early 00s) is facing the blunt of the aftereffects of large-scale migration of foreign talents.”
A third said, “You’re not alone. And welcome to the club of realisation. And imagine, people were already feeling like this since 5-10 years ago. Just keeps going downhill.”
Still, not everyone in the thread was on the same page. Some argued that Singaporeans, despite their frustrations, are still in a much better position than many others and continue to enjoy plenty of privileges that foreigners don’t.
One Redditor laid it all out, saying, “Things you’ve enjoyed as citizens — subsidised education, subsidised healthcare, a powerful passport, voting [rights], BTO, tax subsidies, government handouts, CPF, the ability to work here without needing a permit, and the right to reside in SG without any permit. [These are] things foreigners don’t get. So tell me again, how does the government love foreigners more than locals?”
Another chimed in, agreeing that while life in Singapore isn’t easy, the benefits and stability the country provides are things many others can only dream of.
“Travel more and you will realise Singapore is not as bad as you think,” they said. “I am not saying Singapore is great, but every country has its own problems.”
In related news, many Singaporeans expressed their dismay online after the Public Transport Council (PTC) announced on Tuesday (Oct 14) that the card fare for adults on public buses and trains will go up by 9 to 10 cents from Dec 27.
For cash fares, the increase will be 20 cents for adults and other commuters, 10 cents for seniors and people with disabilities, and five cents for students. By : the independent
(Health care not subsidised)
Gov own the building/hospital, i’m sure thats not free, all other costs you pay.
There is a reason those that educated overseas dont come back.