With Asia-Pacific dominating other regions as the biggest consumer of finished lubricants, Chevron Oronite picked the optimal location to supply its products to this key market – Singapore.
In 1998, the California-based subsidiary of energy giant Chevron made Singapore its Asia-Pacific headquarters, covering more than 15 countries. It saw great potential in the city-state’s excellent connectivity to the region and outstanding logistics and manufacturing capabilities.
Chevron Oronite’s lubricant additives manufacturing facility in Singapore is its largest in Asia, developing and marketing quality additives that improve the performance of fuels and lubricants. These additives are shipped across the region and beyond, to distribution points worldwide, leveraging Singapore’s highly reliable and efficient logistics capabilities.
Chevron Oronite’s facility, occupying a 23-hectare site in Singapore’s energy and chemicals manufacturing hub on Jurong Island, is served by a private jetty. This jetty can accommodate vessels of up to 40,000 dead-weight tonnages for bulk imports of raw materials and export shipments of finished products.
Today, the plant’s capacity has more than doubled, as Chevron Oronite uses Singapore as a key production base to meet the increasing demand for lubricants.
The plant’s latest expansion will add a carboxylate production unit to manufacture sulphur-free detergents, used to produce environmentally-friendly fuels and lubricants. This unit was completed in 2017.
The Singapore facility is also one of the company’s most intelligent in the region. The city-state’s edge in advanced manufacturing and innovation convinced the firm to use it as a pilot in 2016 for incorporating Industrial Internet-of-Things solutions into manufacturing processes.
Using a tracker system that boosted worker safety as well as the efficiency of monitoring personnel and processes, the company has been able to save 30,000 man-hours a year. It plans to expand the pilot to include energy efficiency improvements and predictive maintenance solutions.
