Gas Stockpile Untouched as Oil Hits $119
Qatar's gas goes offline, Singtel's network follows, and $8 billion lands on the Bay
Singapore business, finance and trade news, every Monday.
Gas Lifeline Under Qatar's Rubble
Iranian missiles hit Qatar's Ras Laffan LNG facility on March 18, and the timeline to rebuild the thing is being pegged at three to five years. This is, of course, bad news for the world's largest gas export plant, which supplied roughly 43 percent of LNG imports last year. Natural gas generates 95 percent of Singaporean electricity, and Minister Tan See Leng said Friday the government hasn't tapped its months-long stockpile yet as it is keeping "dry powder" ready for when (he did not say “if”) things get worse. The immediate test is on the shoulders of GasCo, the centralized gas buyer that was set up in 2025 after the last energy crisis sent retail electricity providers running for the exits. Shell and QatarEnergy have already declared force majeure on Qatar-origin volumes, and with oil reaching as high as $119.50 a barrel, the cost pressures are mounting everywhere. PM Wong promised more support if the crisis escalates.
Read more: CNA (stockpile duration), Business Times (GasCo stress test), Business Times (conservation urgency), The Independent Singapore ($175 oil warning), Business Times (food price spillover)
Three Days, Three Outages, Zero Bars
Singtel's network collapsed for three days in a row starting on March 16, knocking 600,000 customers offline and freezing payments, ride-hailing, and food delivery. A mechanical fault at a network facility caused the initial eight-hour blackout; a software bug from a planned upgrade and a traffic jump during reconfigurations extended the misery through day three. IMDA opened an investigation and promised consequences. Note the gap between Singtel's promises that service was restored on the evening of March 16 and complaint from customers who were still unable to connect hours later.
Read more: Business Times
Changi Cashes In as Flyers Dodge the Middle East
Corporate travelers fleeing shuttered Gulf hubs have handed Changi a bonus. Australia-Europe flight bookings through the airport were up 38% in the first half of March. Flight Centre Travel Group tracked the shift between March 2 and 15, comparing volumes to the two weeks earlier. The rerouting follows the widening Middle East conflict that spread to Gulf states after the US-Israel strike on Iran, closing major transit points. FCM Travel Asia flagged the corporate rerouting as a pattern that’s likely to stick, but it also noted that most Europe-Australia connections already ran through Asian hubs rather than the Middle East. Hong Kong is reportedly getting similar overflow traffic.
Read more: Business Times
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Tokyo Chooses Its ASEAN Gateway
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Japanese PM Sanae Takauchi upgraded the label on their bilateral ties to a “strategic partnership” on Wednesday, during the anniversary of 60 years of diplomatic relations. They promised new or renewed cooperation on AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, and defense. The deal includes research on next-generation chips and AI governance, as well as a new ICT policy talk exchanges. Wong presented the upgrade as being two like-minded partners doubling down on free trade and rules-based order against a backdrop of "profound changes," and Takaichi talked up her government's 10th anniversary reboot of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative. This is Japan's first strategic partnership in Southeast Asia.
Read more: Business Times (security cooperation emphasis), Business Times (cybersecurity labeling scheme), Business Times (historical company examples), Mofa Go (FOIP strategy connection)
Old Money, Safe Harbor
Hongkong Land, the property arm of Hong Kong's Jardine Matheson group, has paid SGD 541 million cash for a stake in Suntec REIT, buying into commercial real estate as geopolitical jitters push institutional capital toward anything that looks like a haven. The stake, picked up from Warburg Pincus-backed ESR Group, gives the group exposure to prime CBD assets including one-third stakes in Marina Bay Financial Centre and One Raffles Quay, properties it already partly owns through a separate fund. Investment volumes in local offices, hotels and retail were up 18% year-on-year to SGD 33.9 billion in 2025, the highest in eight years, as lower rates and safe-haven demand came together. Hongkong Land's CFO told The Business Times the group has recycled 90% of a $4 billion target and cut net debt by 30%, leaving plenty of room to put capital to work.
Read more: VnExpress
Sands Doubles Down on the Bay
Las Vegas Sands has given Woh Hup a multi-billion-dollar contract to build its US$8 billion Marina Bay resort, with 5,000 workers already on-site around the clock pushing for a 2030 finish. The 55-storey tower will feature 570 luxury suites, a 15,000-seat arena, and a(nother) casino next door to the existing Marina Bay Sands, which, in 2025, contributed S$2.64 billion in local business spending and an estimated 1.2 per cent of GDP.
Read more: Business Times
Banks Benched in 1MDB Endgame
The High Court told Standard Chartered and BSI Bank they have no standing to intervene in winding-up proceedings for four offshore companies tied to fugitive financier Jho Low. The companies are being liquidated in the British Virgin Islands as part of efforts to recover funds that were allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB, and want to wind up locally so liquidators can follow up on claims against the banks. At stake are US$150 million in transfers from one account to former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, plus US$53.4 million and US$77 million that was routed to vendors for luxury purchases linked to his wife, Rosmah Mansor. The banks argued they should be allowed to participate as contingent creditors, but the court disagreed.
Read more: Business Times
Gatekeepers Who Opened Wide
The central bank has barred two relationship managers who helped clients launder money through a S$3 billion scandal that broke in 2023. Wang Qiming, formerly at Citibank, has been banned from the financial industry for 16 years after convictions on forgery, laundering and obstruction charges that earned him 24 months in prison. Liu Kai, ex-Julius Baer, got seven years out for using a forged tax document to help onboard a client who later went to jail. The 2023 bust netted 10 Fujian nationals with wealth from illegal Chinese gambling and lending operations, and turned up more than S$370 million spread across over a dozen banks. The scandal has caused compliance officers everywhere on the island headaches ever since.
Read more: Business Times
Wage Floor Hits the Kitchen
The three-year Progressive Wage Model schedule will push F&B operators to raise salaries for resident workers by up to 15 percent, and ripple effects are expected well beyond the legally required minimums. Boon Tong Kee's roughly 100 affected employees will see bumps that include overtime pay; Dian Xiao Er expects "substantial" costs to be incurred in all outlets. Even operators that have already been paying above the floor are worried because rising industry benchmarks are sure to reset expectations and put new pressure on margins. The response playbook is expected to the be old formula of higher menu prices, more automation in central kitchens, and some offshoring of back-office functions. Asme's president pointed out that firms that don’t need foreign manpower can technically pay below the new minimums, but that doesn’t really work when locals won't stick around for F&B careers and blue-collar job-hopping is rampant.
Read more: Business Times
Half These Jobs Didn't Exist
Nearly half of job openings in 2025 were newly created roles, hitting 49.3 percent as tech and professional services kept expanding. Information and communications were front of the pack with 74.2 percent of vacancies being brand-new positions, followed by professional services at 58.2 percent. The change is shows up in hiring patterns also, as roughly four-fifths of vacancies now do not use academic credentials as the primary filter. Employers want software developers, data scientists, and systems analysts who can work with AI tools, though they're finding it harder to fill specialized PMET roles. The share of those jobs that has been left vacant for at least six months is now up to 16 percent from 14.4 percent the year before. The ratio of openings to job seekers is steady at 1.58, a tightness that MOM's director for manpower research and statistics says is as much due to skills mismatch as it is a shortage of willing applicants.
Read more: Business Times (retrenchment rates), Business Times (skills mismatch data), VnExpress (remote work surge)
The Little Red Dot Looks Up
A new National Space Agency will get down to business on April 1 to oversee more than 30 satellites, come up with space legislation, and set Singapore up as a hub in a sector that should be worth $1.8 trillion globally by 2035. The government already runs a $210 million program backing companies like Zero-Error Systems, an NTU spin-off making radiation-hardened chips for more than 50 satellite makers worldwide. The workforce currently numbers about 2,000 people in 70 “space” firms, modest numbers that the agency is betting it can grow by leaning on existing aerospace, microelectronics, and engineering knowhow. Whether that's enough to matter alongside the US and China is another question, but few countries as small as Singapore have ever bothered to try.
Read more: Straits Times (structure), Straits Times (projections)
No Beans About It
Foodtech startup Prefer is building a pilot factory to produce bean-free (!?) coffee using fermented food waste, with 500 tonnes of (annual) capacity expected by Q3. Vietnamese robusta prices hit US$5,642 per tonne in the 2024/2025 marketing year, which is a crushing 143 percent increase from the previous term. Prefer's founders met at Entrepreneur First in 2022 and decided fermentation could recreate flavours that climate shocks keep making scarcer and pricier. We’ll see.
Read more: Business Times
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