Cleaning out the oil barrel

SINGAPORE’S petroleum sector occupies a pre-eminent position in the history of energy and oil.

As early as the 19th century, Singapore’s deep-water port, positioned strategically along key trade routes to Asia, was being used as a storage hub for petroleum fuels.

Singapore has hosted the predecessor of nearly every major global oil company that has ever stored, traded, produced or processed petroleum fuels, such as M Samuel & Co, which later became Shell Transport and Trading, and Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, which would later evolve into companies like Caltex, Texaco, Esso, Mobil, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron.