The Western Islands is a planning area located within the

West Region Western Region or West Region may refer to: Places *Al Gharbia, Abu Dhabi, the Western Region *Western Region, Bahrain *Western Region, Eastern Cape, South Africa *Western Region, Ghana *Western Region (Iceland) *Western Region, Nepal *Western Regi ...

of Singapore. It comprises a collection of islands located in the south-western waters of Singapore, namely

Jurong Jurong () is a major geographical region located at the south-westernmost point of the West Region of Singapore. Although mostly vaguely defined, the region's extent roughly covers the planning areas of Jurong East, Jurong West, Boon Lay, and ...

, Bukum and Sudong Islands. The Western Islands originally comprised 27 islands, once home to the native

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

islanders in the past. In the 1990s, the government decided to reclaim land to form one major island, called

Jurong Island Jurong Island is an island located to the southwest of the main island of Singapore. It was formed from the amalgamation of seven offshore islands, the islands of Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Ayer Merbau, Pulau Merlimau, Pulau Pesek, Pulau Pesek ...

. It was subsequently formed from the amalgamation of several offshore

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s, chiefly the seven main islands of Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Ayer Merbau, Pulau Merlimau, Pulau Pesek, Pulau Pesek Kechil, Pulau Sakra and Pulau Soraya. The planning area is located on the

Singapore Straits The Singapore Strait is a , strait between the Strait of Malacca in the west and the South China Sea in the east. Singapore is on the north of the channel, and the Indonesian Riau Islands are on the south. The two countries share a maritime ...

, with

Tuas Tuas is a planning area located within the West Region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Western Water Catchment to its north, Pioneer to its east and the Straits of Johor to its west. Tuas also shares a maritime boundary with the Western Island ...

situated to its west, as well as

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

Boon Lay Boon Lay (, ta, பூன் லே) is a neighbourhood located in the town of Jurong West in the West Region of Singapore. Its borders very roughly correspond to the URA subzone of Boon Lay Place, situated within the Jurong West Planning Are ...

Jurong East Jurong East is a planning area and residential town situated in the West Region of Singapore. It borders Jurong West and Boon Lay to the west, Clementi to the east, Tengah and Bukit Batok to the north and Selat Jurong to the south. First ...

and Queenstown to its north. Western Islands planning area also shares a maritime boundary with the

Southern Islands The Southern Islands is a planning area consisting of a collection of islets located within the Central Region of Singapore, once home to the native Malay islanders and sea nomads before they were relocated to the mainland for urban redevelopm ...

to its east.

Location

Although called 'Western Islands', the islands are not actually located on the west of the main island of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. They are in fact located south-west of the main island. The islands are also relatively near to the

Jurong Island

Jurong Island is the biggest and most important

among the Western Islands. It serves at the

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

and

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

hub of the city-state, and it houses the third largest refining centre in the world. Jurong Island is home to over 94 petroleum, petrochemical, specialty chemical and supporting companies with more than S$26 billion in fixed assets investment on Jurong Island. Multinational companies such as

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

have established a strong presence on Jurong Island. Jurong Island is linked to the main island by a 2.3 km causeway known as the Jurong Island Highway, opened in March 1999. Access to the island is restricted to persons who have a Jurong Island Security Pass. Other restrictions include that one must declare any photographic equipment that they are bringing to the

References

Places in Singapore Western Islands Planning Area {{Singapore-geo-stub