As part of the transaction, Shell will transfer all of its interest in Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Singapore, which comprises refining and chemicals assets on Bukom and Jurong islands, to the JV, it said in a statement on Wednesday, which confirmed a Bloomberg News report from last week.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, although people familiar with the matter have said it could be worth about US$1 billion.

The plant on Bukom island, opened in 1961, was Singapore’s first oil refinery. Shell opened the plant just before the country’s independence, and the site was developed in lock-step with the city-state as it became one of the world’s most important commodity-trading hubs.

The oil major said it remains committed to Singapore as a regional hub for its marketing and trading business.

Shell’s Singapore assets include a refinery capable of processing 237,000 barrels of oil a day, a facility on Jurong Island that produces monoethylene glycol and an ethylene plant on Pulau Bukom.

After a spell of bumper returns, the world’s top commodity traders such as Glencore and Vitol Group have become more interested to invest in assets to broaden their businesses. Glencore reported core earnings of US$17.1 billion last year. While it’s half the number it posted a year ago, it remains one of its best-ever earnings.

Shell started a review of its energy and chemicals assets on Bukom and Jurong islands last year, after dropping plans to convert the site into a biofuels plant — part of an earlier push to meet emissions targets.

The company’s Bukom facility is “by far the weakest integrated refinery-petrochemical site” in its portfolio, Wood Mackenzie analysts said in a report in September.

Earlier, a number of companies were circling the storied oil refinery including China’s state-owned Sinopec.