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| Jurong Island |
Jurong Island is a man-made island located to the southwest of the main island of Singapore, off Jurong Industrial Estate. It was
formed from the amalgamation of several offshore islands, chiefly the seven main islands of Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Ayer Merbau,
Pulau Merlimau, Pulau Pesek, Pulau Pesek Kecil, Pulau Sakra and Pulau Seraya. This was done through land reclamation. When
completed, Jurong Island will form a land area of about 32 km² from an initial area of less than 10 km².
Jurong Island is linked to the main island by a 2.3 km causeway known as the Jurong Island Highway, opened in March 1999.
Access to the island is restricted to persons who have a Jurong Island Security Pass. Other restrictions include that one must declare
any photographic equipment that they are bringing to the island.
History
The outlying islands of Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Ayer Merbau, Pulau Merlimau and Pulau Seraya used to house fishing
communities comprising small villages up to the 1960s. The villagers lived in Malay-style wooden stilt houses on the palm-fringed
islands. Between late-1960s and early-1970s, three big oil companies planned to house their facilities on Pulau Ayer Chawan for
Esso, Pulau Merlimau for Singapore Refinery Company and Pulau Pesek for Mobil Oil.
The Government of Singapore then took the opportunity to grow the petrochemical industry as a choice that will significantly produce
economic growth. This was proven by the success of starting off the petroleum industries in the 1970s.
By the 1980s, after a decade of rapid industrialisation, industrial land was growing scarce on Singapore mainland. The idea of joining
the southern islands off Jurong to form one colossal island to create more industrial land was therefore conceived.
In 1991, JTC Corporation (formerly Jurong Town Corporation) was appointed the agent of the Jurong Island project. JTC planned
and coordinated with various government agencies in providing the necessary infrastructure and services to the island.
Physical land reclamation began in 1995, and Jurong Island was officially opened in October 2000. From the 9.91 km² land area of
the original seven islets, Jurong Island currently has a total land area of more than 30 km² and would have added about 2 km² more
by the time reclamation is completed. PentaOcean Construction (五洋建設）was the major contractor.
Jurong Island Today
Petrochemical Industries
Today, Jurong Island is home to leading petrochemical companies. Industry luminaries like BASF, BP, Celanese, ExxonMobil,
DuPont, Mitsui Chemicals, Chevron Oronite, Shell and Sumitomo Chemical have taken the opportunity by setting up factories there
to reap the benefits of comprehensive infrastructure and production synergies from this unique cluster development for oil,
petrochemical and specialty chemicals.
Clusters of gigantic cylindrical tanks amid a maze of pipelines now dot the island — a testament to the more than 80 companies that
have invested around S$24 billion so far. These companies produce a vast range of items, from petroleum products to polycarbonate
resins used in CDs, DVDs and LCD TV panels, and super absorbent polymers that go into diapers and sanitary napkins.
United States energy giant ExxonMobil, which has invested S$4 billion in a refinery and cracker plant, makes industrial and
automotive lubricants including a product used in Formula One racing cars.
DuPont, which pumped in S$1 billion, manufactures Zytel nylon resin, a versatile engineering plastic used in automobile components,
appliances, wire insulation, sporting gear and home furnishings.
Output for the chemicals cluster — which cover oil and gas, petrochemicals and specialty chemicals — totaled S$66.5 billion in 2005,
up 31 per cent in 2004. This accounted for almost 32 per cent of production in Singapore's manufacturing sector. Powered by the
cluster, Singapore is currently one of the world's top three oil refining centres despite not having a single drop of crude deposits.
Jurong Island's refineries process 1.3 million barrels of crude oil per day, turning it into petrol, kerosene and jet fuel sold locally and
abroad. Cracker plants break down the molecules of other oil-and gas-related substances such as naphtha into additives that give
unique characteristics to certain products, from printer inks to plastic mouldings, semiconductors and aircraft materials.
Apart from imported crude, natural gas from Indonesia's West Natuna field arrives at Jurong Island via a 640 km undersea pipeline.
Some of it is refined to provide a source of cleaner and cheaper fuel, while the rest is sent to crackers that make other petrochemical
products. The 1500+ owners of local cars running on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) can go to Jurong Island to refill their tanks.
One more CNG station is in Mandai (main Island of Singapore). Two more CNG stations are supposed to open on the main Island of
Singapore in 2008. Most of the CNG cars in Singapore are not allowed to enter Jurong Island, as the drivers do not have the
necessary security pass to enter the island.
Infrastructure
Jurong Island has its own fire station, and an amenity centre known as Oasis@Sakra that houses a food court, a medical clinic and a
free of charge multi storey carpark. The island also houses the Seraya Power Station, Singapore's first offshore power station, which
was completed in phases on the former Pulau Seraya since 1982.
The island has a network of pipelines that allows for seamless integration among companies. For example, Japan's Teijin can
receive piped-in chlorine produced by CIFE company and bisphenol A from Mitsui Chemicals to make polycarbonates. Red pipes
carry water for firefighting and green pipes, sea water for cooling. Huge silver pipes carry steam and small silver pipes bring product
lines.
There are two major cargo jetties on Jurong Island, namely Sakra Jetty and Banyan Jetty.
Research and Development
To raise its competitive edge, Singapore is moving to produce higher-value-added specialty products, including chemicals that would
go into animal vaccines, animal feeds, consumer care items such as cosmetics and industrial enzymes that will support the
biomedical sector.
As part of this effort to move up the value chain, a Research and Development centre (Institute of Chemical and Engineering
Science) has been set up on Jurong Island.
Future Plans
Construction of underground rock caverns to store crude oil, condensates, naphtha and gas-oil is expected to start in late 2006.
Work on the caverns is expected to be completed by 2009. Total underground storage capacity could reach up to 3.2 million cubic
metres. In the first phase, the caverns will have a storage capacity of 1.47 million cubic metres.
References
Associated Press, "A GDP bigger than some nations'", Today, 21 November 2006
