Singapore Lube Park, the first shared lubricants facility in the Asia-Pacific, opened last Thursday. The project was announced in July 2013.

The Tuas facility, located in southwestern Singapore, houses shared facilities such as an import-export jetty, pipelines and a tank farm with a capacity of 159,000 cubic meters. These support the lube oil blending and grease manufacturing plants of Shell Eastern Petroleum, Sinopec Lubricant (Singapore) and Total Oil Asia, which are located on separate sites adjacent to the lube park. Estimated to cost at least half a billion dollars, the Lube Park is a joint venture between the aforementioned three companies.

Sinopec's S$134 (US$97.5) million plant, with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), of which 80,000 tpa is for oil production and 20,000 tpa for grease production, was opened in 2013. Total opened its S$150 million blending plant, its largest in the world with a capacity of 310,000 tpa, last year. The new facility replaces Total's two lubricant plants in Jurong Pandan and Pioneer. Shell is still in the process of building its 350,000 tpa plant. When completed, it will replace Shell's current 240,000 tpa facility in Woodlands, located at the northernmost part of Singapore. Shell has not disclosed the cost of their facility nor the expected completion date.

The Lube Park said in a statement that Singapore has "long been a strategic lubricants hub" for both Shell and Total, from which they have been supplying products to their respective customers and markets in the Asia-Pacific.

The Lube Park also said the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for 44 per cent of the global market for finished lubricants demand, has "immense market potential".

"Located at the heart of this dynamic and fast-growing region, and with world-class logistics and excellent connectivity, Singapore offers companies like Shell, Total and Sinopec a strong base from which to access this growth in Asia" it said.