Shell completes sale of Singapore refinery to Chandra Asri-Glencore jv

Oil firm Shell has completed the sale of its Singapore refinery and refining assets to a Chandra Asri-Glencore joint venture, with new owners already started purchasing feedstock. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Last year, Shell announced the sale of its Bukom and Jurong islands facility, which dates back to 1961. The deal makes Indonesia-based Chandra Asri, the majority owner of the joint venture, one of Southeast Asia’s largest petrochemicals players

Shell said that its staff at the site will remain with the new venture, Aster Chemicals and Energy Pte Ltd.

Chandra Asri has already made several open-spec naphtha purchases for Singapore arrivals starting in March as it took charge of Aster’s petrochemicals feedstock procurement, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

Under Shell, the Jurong Island chemicals site imported around 1.5 million tonnes/year of naphtha in 2023 and 2024, shiptracking data from Kpler showed.

Meanwhile, Swiss trading giant Glencore has made several crude purchases for May and June arrival into Singapore, including from Canada and Kazakhstan, two sources familiar with the purchases said.

Canada-origin crude has rarely, if ever, previously been bound for Singapore, with no such volumes recorded in shiptracking data from Kpler and LSEG dating from 2013 and 2017, respectively.

Both Chandra Asri and Glencore did not immediately respond to a Reuters query for comment, while Shell said that the company had signed crude supply and products offtake agreements that will come into effect following the completion of the sale.