Shell wrote down billions on a Singapore chemicals bet that the market left behind.

Shell's Singapore Energy and Chemicals Park was once its largest wholly owned refinery and a cornerstone of its Asian chemicals strategy. In January 2024 Shell warned of fourth-quarter 2023 impairments of $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion, driven by macro developments and portfolio choices including the Singapore Chemicals & Products assets. The quarterly results later confirmed $1.977 billion of net impairment charges in the Chemicals and Products segment, mainly relating to Chemicals assets in Singapore.

The writedowns kept coming. In July 2024 Shell flagged up to $2 billion in further second-quarter impairments, including $600 million to $800 million tied to the Singapore chemicals and products facility. By May 2024 the company had agreed to sell the entire Energy and Chemicals Park in Singapore to CAPGC, a joint venture between Indonesia's Chandra Asri and Glencore. The sale closed in April 2025.

The decision error was a strategic bet on large-scale Asian petrochemicals at a time when the economics were turning. Shell had built and maintained a vast integrated refining and chemicals complex in Singapore, but rising Chinese capacity, weaker regional demand, and the energy transition compressed margins and stranded the asset. Rather than being a durable growth engine, the park became a repeated impairment and an eventual exit.