December 22, 2010 [Reuters] - Singapore's biggest local oil trader Hin Leong Trading is teaming up with one of China's top four national oil firms and possibly a European partner to set up a $6-$8 billion, 300,000-500,000 barrel-per-day refinery in the city-state, Business Times reported on Wednesday.
The planned greenfield project, for which memoranda of understanding have been signed, will be located on Jurong Island and will make Singapore the world’s third largest oil refining and trading hub after Houston and Rotterdam, the daily said.
The refinery, meant to produce green fuels such as ultra-low sulphur gasoline, diesel and naphtha, is to be located next to Hin Leong’s S$750 million ($570 million) Universal Terminal (UT) in the island’s Meranti sector, the daily reported.
The UT facility will provide the refinery more operational efficiency, giving immediately available tankage both for crude oil feedstock and refined products as well as jetties for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and product tankers.
The city-state already has three refineries — Exxon Mobil’s 605,000 bpd, Shell’s 500,000 bpd, Singapore Refining Co’s 290,000 bpd.
As PetroChina already has a 35 percent stake in UT and a stake in Singapore Refining, it implies one of the other three top Chinese national oil firms — SinoChem , Sinopec or CNOOC — could be involved in the refinery plan, the daily said.
