Together with Caltex, there was an initial discussion
with the Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC),
which had started up a 70,000 b/d refinery on then
Pulau Merlimau or Merlimau Island in 1973. Amid
Southeast Asia’s growing oil demand and the First
Oil Shock of 1974, a refinery of this size was no
longer competitive, and had to be upgraded and
expanded to survive. Furthermore, Merlimau, since
merged with other islands to form the much larger
Jurong Island, did not have the infrastructure to
handle vessels larger than 80,000 deadweight
tonnes (dwt). By then, the other majors had much
Singapore Refining Company
larger refineries in Singapore that were served
by single buoy moorings (SBM) that could receive and unload crude cargoes from 200,000-dwt vessels
on Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). With the Singapore government’s approval, SPC accepted the
proposal to team up with BP and Caltex to form the Singapore Refining Company (SRC) in 1979.
SPC realised it neede