From diapers to DVDs, jet fuel and perfumes, the world gets a little bit of Singapore every day thanks to a multi-billion-dollar chemicals industry centred on a man-made island.
Formed from connecting seven smaller islands through land reclamation, Jurong island hosts a who's who of the chemicals and petrochemicals sector.
It produces an annual output that dwarfs the gross domestic product of some countries.
Unlike islands carved by nature, Jurong's main draw is not palm-fringed white-sand beaches but highly integrated infrastructure and top-level security for its industrial tenants.
Clusters of gigantic, whitewashed cylindrical storage tanks amid a maze of pipelines dot the island - a testament to the more than 80 companies that have invested around 24 billion Singapore dollars (15 billion US) so far.
They produce a vast range of items, from refined petroleum products to polycarbonate resins used in CDs, DVDs and LCD television panels, and super absorbent polymers that go into diapers and sanitary pads.
Even perfume maker Giorgio Armani uses additives churned out by Singapore's chemicals cluster. Eight of the world's top 10 players in fragrances are in Singapore, the government's Economic Development Board (EDB) said.
Jurong, off Singapore's south-west, boasts industrial tenants including oil majors ExxonMobil, Shell and ChevronTexaco, as well as petrochemical giants BASF, Celanese, DuPont, Mitsui Chemicals, Chevron Phillips and Sumitomo Chemical.
"It's the centerpiece of our industry," Julian Ho, deputy director for the chemicals cluster at the EDB, told AFP.
US energy giant ExxonMobil, which has invested four billion dollars on a refinery and cracker plant, makes industrial and automotive lubricants including a product used in Formula One racing cars.
DuPont, which pumped in one billion dollars, manufactures Zytel nylon resin, a versatile engineering plastic used in automobile components, appliances, wire insulation, sporting gear and home furnishings.
Output for the chemicals cluster - which covers oil and gas, petrochemicals and specialty chemicals - totalled 66.5 billion dollars in 2005, up 31 percent from the previous year, EDB said.
This accounted for almost 32 percent of production in the city-state's all-important manufacturing sector. The chemicals output is projected to grow to 75 billion dollars by 2018.
"Singapore's chemicals cluster is a key pillar of Singapore's economy. It is the second-largest manufacturing cluster in terms of output after electronics," Ho said.
Powered by the cluster, tiny Singapore is now one of the world's top three oil refining centres despite not having a single drop of crude deposits. It is also one of the world's top ten chemical hubs, the EDB said.
Jurong's refineries process 1.3 million barrels of crude oil per day, turning the thick, black liquid into gasoline, kerosene and jet fuel sold locally and abroad.
Cracker plants break down the molecules of other oil-and gas-related substances like naptha into additives that give unique characteristics to certain products, from printer inks to plastic mouldings, semiconductors and aircraft materials.
Apart from imported crude, natural gas from Indonesia's West Natuna field arrives at Jurong via a 640-kilometre (397-mile) undersea pipeline. Some of it is refined to provide a source of cleaner and cheaper fuel, while the rest is sent to crackers that make other petrochemical products.
To raise its competitive edge, Singapore is moving to produce higher-value-added specialty products.
This includes chemicals that would go into animal vaccines, animal feeds, consumer care items like cosmetics and industrial enzymes that will support the biomedicals sector.
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