SEPC
Hello. My name is Ian Lo and I’m the Ventures and New Business Vice President for Shell Chemicals.
And here we are in the heart of Singapore, and the reason we’re here is because we’re about to start a
very special project me.
It’s the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex.
Singapore has very many advantages. You start looking at it from the market back,
you know, this is in a very strategic location, China to the North, India to the West,
we’re sitting in South-East Asia where the demand for petrochemicals continues to grow above the rate of
GDP growth.
So that’s exciting. Secondly, we have Bukom here, our refinery that’s stand-alone,
and the ability to integrate that with the cracker gives us that additional conversion capacity,
was another reason.
Thirdly, the infrastructure in Singapore is great, yeh, the ability of, you know, great logistics,
so you can move your product out to your customer, you can get your feedstock in … industrial gas
availability,
so you don’t have to build everything yourself, you can just buy it in.
Also there’s a big established petrochemicals hub already here, so there’s a big customer base already
here.
And the advantages I describe are also advantages that our customers see.
So they will be willing to comer in and locate in Singapore.
And of course, finally, the Singapore Government has been extremely helpful in providing us support
to be able to take this investment decision and build in Singapore.
And one last thing, I think, the talent base in Singapore is something which maybe we don’t always
consciously think about
but actually is very important for our business.
The ability and access of good talent in this country makes it just very logical for us to build here.
It’s giving us such a strong edge and it excites our staff as well.
Yeh? For us to always think about our competitors and the structural advantages that they have,
and we don’t have it, and for the first time, I think, we’re going to have that kind of ability to compete,
it’s not just energizing for me, is energizing for all our staff, you know,
that now we have the same kind of ability to compete on a level playing field
with some of our bigger competitors…because the growth is in Asia,
and we want to compete in markets where there is growth, where there is scale so that we can continue
to grow with it.
Our customers are here and our customers are growing here, so it makes sense to grow with them.
In other parts of the world, it may not be the same level of growth,
but we have that advantage here and we must take advantage of that.
As an engineer, it’s always, for me, extremely fulfilling to see something get built.
I remember going out to site when I first came into the job in 2006.
It was just a pile of sand, an extension of Bukom Island that had been reclaimed by the Singapore
Government,
and today, if you get out there, there are thousands and thousands of tonnes of steel in place,
and an ability to make 800,000 tonnes of ethylene a year.
It’s just an amazing feeling to see that we have created a very complicated petrochemical complex
which gives us a fantastic platform really to grow our business here, to meet the needs of our customers,
and also to nurture a strong talent pipeline for our business not just in Asia but globally.
So for me, the combination of all those three, really makes me feel really proud.