Jurong Facility With 1.47 Million Cubic Metres of Capacity Prepares to Store Saudi Crude in 2027
Key Facts
Singapore’s and Saudi Arabia’s energy ministries announced on October 26, 2026, their shared intention to establish an arrangement to store crude oil in Singapore. The announcement marks the start of a proposed plan to store Saudi crude at an underground facility on Jurong Island. During Singapore International Energy Week, the Energy Market Authority of Singapore and JTC exchanged a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabian Oil Company, as a first step toward implementing the arrangement. The two governments say the inventory will support Singapore’s energy needs in the event of supply disruptions. The arrangement also aims to strengthen the resilience of the Saudi crude supply chain in Southeast Asia.
According to the joint statement, Saudi crude will be stored in the Jurong Rock Caverns on Jurong Island, with storage operations expected to begin in the second half of 2027. That places the expected start of operations more than a year after the shared intention was announced, while the statement does not specify the volume of crude to be stored or commercial details of the arrangement. The facility has a maximum capacity of 1.47 million cubic metres of liquid hydrocarbons, including crude oil and condensates. The caverns are located 150 metres underground and 130 metres below Banyan Basin on Jurong Island. JTC says the facility is designed for commercial storage, not as a government strategic reserve.
The Jurong facility is part of existing industrial infrastructure built around underground storage; its first two caverns entered operation in 2014, and the final three were completed in 2017. JTC said building the caverns underground made about 60 hectares of surface land available for higher-value activities. The uses it cited include chemical manufacturing and research and development. Using an existing commercial facility places the proposed Saudi arrangement within the storage and energy system on Jurong Island, where the island’s companies and oil traders operate. But the facility’s total capacity does not reveal the Saudi crude allocation, as the statement did not specify a volume set aside for the inventory.
The announcement comes as Singapore monitors the risk of supply route disruptions, after the Saudi East-West pipeline was temporarily halted on September 11 before resuming operations at reduced capacity on September 22, according to Singapore’s Energy Ministry. The ministry said it had not observed a decline in its crude oil and liquefied natural gas inventories because of the temporary halt. It described the East-West pipeline as an important route for Saudi crude exports that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. It warned that a prolonged halt could reduce the availability of Saudi crude in a tight global market and add pressure to prices. At the same time, it said Singapore’s refineries and oil traders import crude and petroleum products from diverse sources outside the Middle East and continued to meet domestic demand.
The importance of Asian supply routes is underscored by oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz; the International Energy Agency said an average of 20 million barrels per day of crude and products passed through it in 2025, with about 80% of flows heading to Asia. The agency said the Middle East supplied about 60% of Asia’s crude imports before the 2026 crisis, leaving the region exposed to supply disruptions when shipping is affected. Amid pressure on transport, the agency said the cost of shipping crude from the Gulf to Asia on a large tanker exceeded $37 per barrel by mid-October, more than five times its level before the war. It also said observed global oil inventories had fallen 507 million barrels since the war began, with an average draw of 2.8 million barrels per day during the six months before its September 2026 report. These indicators provide broader context for Singapore’s focus on supply resilience, while operations under the proposed storage arrangement are still expected to begin in the second half of 2027.