Could you give us an overview of Chevron’s business(es) and asset footprint in Singapore?

Chevron has been present in Singapore since 1933, and today we employ close to 1,100 people. Our business in the country is primarily Downstream and Midstream. For Downstream activities outside of the Americas, Singapore is the global HQ of our International Fuels and Lubricants (IFL) business unit. Singapore is also the Asia HQ of our Chevron Oronite additives business. In its HQ function, Singapore is home to many corporate leaders supporting our legal, finance, treasury, HR, IT, and procurement departments. Also in Singapore is our midstream operations, which cover supply and trading for crude products, natural gas, LNG, or LPG, into APAC.

Various assets underpin our presence in the region: Singapore Refining Company Private Limited (SRC) is a joint venture (50:50) between Singapore Petroleum Company Limited and Chevron Singapore Pte. Ltd. SRC operates a refinery in Singapore which has a capacity of 290,000 barrels per day (bpd) producing largely fuels, but also chemicals like propylene sold to Jurong Island customers. Chevron Oronite Pte. Ltd. operates one of the largest additives manufacturing plants in the Asia-Pacific region. We also operate one of our largest blending facilities for oil at Penjuru Terminal. As an integrated business, Chevron also has a retail brand called Caltex, with 25 sites in Singapore.

What is Chevron’s vision for the energy transition?

Our purpose is to develop affordable, reliable, and ever cleaner energy to enable human progress. Oil and gas will continue to play an important part in the future energy mix, but there are ways to lower the carbon intensity of the traditional energy space – and this is the first pillar of our focus. Many people talk about how the 2050 energy mix will look like, but we must connect the dots between where we are and where we want to be by looking at the most pragmatic, economic, and efficient pathways in the near term.

As our first pillar, our differentiated energy transition strategy is to lower the carbon intensity of our operations. Our second pillar is to grow our lower carbon businesses in renewable fuels & products, hydrogen, CCUS, carbon offsets and emerging lower carbon opportunities. The third pillar will be technology; this will enable us to unlock the potential value of future energy solutions.

In Singapore, our vision is already beginning to materialize. Last year, we embarked on an MoU with A*STAR and other like-minded industry partners to establish a consortium that looks at CCUS research. We also participated in a separate consortium looking at research into polymeric membranes for carbon capture solutions across various applications and industries. In the area of carbon footprinting, Chevron has partnered Pavilion Energy to put together an end-to-end methodology for GHG emissions reporting across the value chain. In April 2022, Chevron launched a partnership with the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization (GCMD) to develop potential scalable lower carbon technologies for the maritime sector – like onboard carbon capture or using ammonia as a maritime fuel.

How is Chevron contributing to the community in the region?

Corporate Social Responsibility remains an important element for us. I’m heartened that our staff have taken the initiative to lead several CSR activities. They have also rallied together to support a variety of CSR activities, which also contributes to building a diverse and inclusive Chevron culture. One example of our CSR activities involved employees donating to appropriate charitable organizations of their choice and Chevron Singapore matching their donations dollar-for-dollar to benefit these organizations, some of which support mental health well-being and the more vulnerable segment in our community. We have expanded our CSR activities beyond monetary donations to include food donations and used sports shoes recycling in the past year. Looking ahead, we are exploring in-person physical volunteering activities later this year. Chevron also launched the Climate Resilience Asia Pacific Accelerator which helps social enterprises and budding entrepreneurs to scale up their business for climate resilience solutions in the areas of energy, water, and sustainable farming; this project takes place in India, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and it is done via a collaboration with the US-based Miller Center.

Do you have a final message?

Chevron’s vision is to be the global energy company most admired for its people, partnership and performance. As our different JV structures and collaborations in Singapore show, it is part of our DNA to work with partners, and this collaborative model will extend into the new technologies we hope to explore.