Aster Chemicals and Energy, a joint venture between Glencore and Indonesia’s Chandra Asri Group, has announced a US $155 million investment to upgrade its Bukom Refinery in Singapore, which it acquired from Shell in April 2025. According to publicly available statements and industry reports, the modernization program—scheduled for completion in 2026—is designed to enhance operational efficiency, improve energy resilience, and strengthen the site’s long-term competitiveness.

A central component of the initiative is a US $71 million upgrade to the refinery’s Lube Oil Complex (LOC), which will rejuvenate production infrastructure and enable the site to manufacture higher-value base-oil products used across automotive, industrial, and marine lubricant applications. An additional US $75 million will support improvements to the Condensate Splitter Unit, increasing crude-processing capability from roughly 237,000 barrels per day to more than 300,000 bpd to provide greater operational flexibility. The investment also includes logistics enhancements that will facilitate exports of mixed C4 products and imports of pyrolysis gasoline from Chandra Asri’s Cilegon facility, improving integration across the companies’ refining and petrochemical assets.

Industry analysts note that increased base-oil capability at a major regional supply hub like Singapore could help strengthen Asia-Pacific lubricant feedstock availability—potentially stabilizing supply chains and reducing volatility for blenders and distributors. While detailed technical specifications have not been disclosed, the initiative underscores Aster’s commitment to advancing value-added refining capacity in a strategically important market.