Provision of Natural Gas Supply to Industrial Estates

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) what is the progress in the provision of natural gas supply to all industrial estates to help industries reduce carbon emission.

Since large-scale natural gas imports began in 2001, our natural and town gas networks have been expanding to meet growing demands from power plants and industry. Over the past 10 years, PowerGas has extended our pipeline network by about 650 kilometres, or about 23% of the entire network. The natural gas network today covers our industrial estates in western and northern Singapore, while the town gas network spans much of the island, including most of the remaining industrial estates. This will benefit industries that presently use more carbon-intensive fuels, such as diesel. Only the Seletar industrial estate is not presently connected to either the natural gas or town gas networks. This is because the companies sited there are in the aviation and supporting industries and presently do not require sufficient volumes of gas to justify extending the gas network there.

As the development of the pipeline network is capital-intensive, the Energy Market Authority will continue to extend the natural gas and town gas networks to serve areas where there is sustained gas demand growth. JTC will also factor in the utility needs of the industry, that is, power, water and gas, when planning for new industrial sites. This will assist to lower the last-mile connectivity cost as a whole for companies.

Besides switching to cleaner fuels, such as natural gas, to reduce their carbon emissions, companies can also utilise renewable energy, such as solar power or implement energy efficiency measures. For instance, Apple had signed an agreement with local solar company Sunseap in 2015 to provide clean energy to power its entire Singapore operations. Companies can also tap on various energy efficiency grant schemes to improve their energy efficiency.