This publication presents the long history of Shell in Singapore, which began in the early 1890s, when M. Samuel & Co. of London decided to use Singapore as a base for the import and distribution of kerosene from Russia, and appointed the Singapore-based Syme & Co. to establish and manage a petroleum tank depot, which was built on Pulau Bukom. In 1897, M. Samuel & Co. formed a separate company, Shell Transport and Trading, for its rapidly expanding oil business. It subsequently merged with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in 1907 to form Royal Dutch Shell, (later just called “Shell”) one of the world’s major energy companies today. Over the decades, Pulau Bukom was further developed and expanded through land reclamation. In December 1959, Shell announced plans to establish a refinery on Pulau Bukom, which was already the biggest centre for oil storage, blending, packing and bunkering in Southeast Asia, and one of the largest in the world. Costing $30 million to build, Singapore’s first oil refinery was officially opened by then Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee on 26 July 1961. There were as many as 5,000 residents on Bukom in the early 1960s, the majority of whom were Shell employees and their families.
