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Brief history of the country
Singapore (the Republic of Singapore) is an island city state at the tip of Malaysia, with Indonesia's Riau Islands nearby to the south.
Singapore, then known as Temasek, was a trading outpost of the Sumatra Srivijaya empire from 700 AD, becoming a kingdom in 1299 and called Singapura (Lion City). It was destroyed by a Javan empire in 1401 and by the Portuguese in 1613 when it was part of the Johore Sultanate.
The area fell under Dutch control for most of the 18th Century but Singapore remained a backwater until 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles acquired it from the Sultan of Johore for the East India Company as a trading post. It was ceded to the UK as part of the Straits Settlements in 1826 after which a big influx of Chinese immigrants arrived to work as labourers.
After World War 1 the British built a naval base but this failed to thwart Japan who invaded from the north in 1942. After World War 2 the Straits Settlements was dissolved and Singapore became a UK Crown Colony. Immigrant Chinese activists demanded home rule which was granted in 1959, followed by independence in 1963 within the Malaysia Federation.
In 1965 it split from Malaysia to become a country in its own right and is now a wealthy centre of commerce, finance and transport with industries such as oil refining, rig building and technology.
Oil and gas summary
Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island called Pulau Ujong, connected to Malaysia via two causeways. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of the smaller islands. The highest point is Bukit Timah Hill at 164m. Land reclamation projects have increased the country’s size by nearly a quarter since the 1960s, including merging a number of the islands.
The country, at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula, lies on the western part of Sundaland which is a granite-cored block of the Indo-Chinese plate. It is almost entirely composed of granites and gabbros with thin layers of young sandstone and mudstone sediments in the west and metamorphic quartzites in the northeast. The igneous rocks were probably emplaced during rifting within the Laurasia continent prior to the breakup of Pangaea in the Late Triassic. The island has only limited sedimentary cover .
The small granite island of Singapore has no history of drilling and production and no exploration wells have ever been drilled on the islands or in their surrounding waters. Globalshift does not forecast any future production of oil or gas from the country.
The country is a high consumer of oil, with large volumes used in refining and to fuel aircraft. It imports piped gas from both Malaysia and Indonesia. For added security of supply its first LNG regasification terminal opened in 2013 providing the capacity required for the country’s expanding energy infrastructure and to power new process plant developments.
SINGAPORE
Map and National Flag
SINGAPORE
Marina Bay
Southeast Asia
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Singapore
6.04 mm (2024)
720
None
None
1,332
12.6
Government
Singapore is a parliamentary republic. The elected President is a largely ceremonial post. Executive power rests with the Cabinet led by the Prime Minister.
Parliament is unicameral with 87 elected members and 9 nominated members. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959.
There is no department of government specifically responsible for oil and gas resources.
The Energy Market Authority is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry which promotes competition in the energy market and ensures a secure energy supply.
Singapore was a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967.
