Shell charged over 2 incidents involving ‘oily mixture’ discharged into S’pore waters in 2024

SINGAPORE - Shell Singapore was handed four charges under the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea Act on Sept 22 over two incidents involving “oily mixture” discharged into the country’s waters in 2024.

Both incidents were allegedly linked to the oil company’s energy and chemicals park on Pulau Bukom Kechil.

For the first incident, around 40 tonnes of the mixture was purportedly discharged through a hole in a four-inch slop pipeline within the company’s oil refining facility on Oct 20, 2024.

Shell Singapore is also accused of failing to report the matter to the port master when the incident took place at around 8am that day.

It allegedly did so about five hours later.

Clean-up operations were completed on Oct 29, 2024.

For the second incident, around 485kg to 956kg of an “oily mixture” was allegedly discharged through a fixture within the facility between Dec 26 and 28, 2024.

Shell Singapore is accused of failing to report the matter to the port master when it first occurred at around 9.30am on Dec 26, 2024.

It allegedly did so shortly before noon that day.

The Straits Times reported in December 2024 that the scale of this oil leak was later determined to be minor with no risk to public safety or environmentally sensitive areas.