Debated in Parliament on 7 Apr 2026.
The following statements were made in replies provided by the Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng) in his capacity as the Minister charged with the responsibility for Energy and Energy Supplies, during the Ministerial Statements on “Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore” at the Sitting of 7 April 2026:
(a) [I]n the event that we do not have enough natural gas, the gencos will be required to switch to diesel to run and power up. We have conducted regular audits every quarter on these gencos to ensure that the advanced combined cycle gas turbine can switch to diesel. Thus far, our audit statistics have shown that we are 99.9% ready in switching. [Please refer to "Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore", Official Report, 7 April 2026, Vol 96, Issue 27, Ministerial Statements section.]
(b) [W]e are connected. While this is an advantage for us, given the 150 oil majors that we have here, the third largest oil trading hub in the world, the sixth largest refinery complex in the world, but upstream, the crude still has to come from somewhere. [Please refer to "Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore", Official Report, 7 April 2026, Vol 96, Issue 27, Ministerial Statements section.]
(c) Our sense today is that the domestic consumers, because they form not a very big part of the gencos' exposure, if I am not mistaken, I have to check this, but I think they use less than four megawatts for the entire year. So, I do not think they will be affected that much. [Please refer to "Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore", Official Report, 7 April 2026, Vol 96, Issue 27, Ministerial Statements section.]
Written statement by Dr Tan See Leng circulated with leave of the Speaker in accordance with Standing Order No 29(5):
I wish to make the following factual corrections to the replies given during the Ministerial Statements on “Impact of the Middle East Situation on Singapore” at the Sitting of 7 April 2026. My replies should read as follows:
(a) [I]n the event that we do not have enough natural gas, the gencos will be required to switch to diesel to run and power up. We have conducted regular audits every quarter on these gencos to ensure that the advanced combined cycle gas turbine can switch to diesel. Thus far, our audit statistics have shown that we are 99% successful in switching.
(b) [W]e are connected. While this is an advantage for us, given the 150 energy traders that we have here, the third largest oil trading hub in the world, the sixth largest refinery export hub in the world, but upstream, the crude still has to come from somewhere.
(c) Our sense today is that the domestic household consumers, because they form not a very big part of the gencos' exposure, if I am not mistaken, I have to check this, but I think they each use less than six megawatt-hours for the entire year. So, I do not think they will be affected that much.
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