BP in Singapore
An aerial view of the Singapore Refining Company (SRC) on Pulau Merlimau. BP has a 30% shareholding interest in the company.
1970s - 2001
The nationalisation of the oil industry by the Middle Eastern states in the 1970s created a temporary supply
crisis for BP that was not fully alleviated until the beginning of the 1980s when alternative supplies from
Alaska and the North Sea came on stream. This meant that growth throughout the 1970s was slower than
expected.
If growth in the 1970s was slow, it threatened to grind to a halt in the 1980s, primarily due to a worldwide
surplus in refining capacity, and an economic downturn in Singapore in the mid-1980s.
BP’s response to the challenging conditions of the 1980s was to invest S$400m in a hydrocracking facility at
the Pulau Merlimau Refinery as part of a strategy to focus on higher value added products. The market for
bulk products was dominated by Shell, so BP looked to the long term growth of the regional demand for new
products. The small refinery at Pasir Panjang survived through a contract to refine oil from the Indonesian
state company Pertamina, but the government had told BP that it would not renew the lease on the site
when it expired in 1992.
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