Jurong Island Largely man- made, Jurong Island was created by land reclamation and the merging of seven smaller islands (Pulau Pesak, Pulau Pesak Kecil, Pulau Ayer Chawan, Pulau Ayer Merbau, Pulau Sakra, Pulau Seraya and Pulau Merlimau) and a number of islets, with the objective of housing Singapore’s petrochemical industries. The original island group, off the southwest coast of Singapore, was less than 10 sq km in area. The individual islands were palm- fringed and dotted with traditional Malay kampung laut— fishing villages on stilts. With reclamation and the merging of islands, the land area was more than tripled to 32 sq km. Jurong Island was extended and given new deep- water port facilities. A large number of oil and chemical companies have installations on the island. They include Chevron, ExxonMobil, Celanese, Mitsui and Sumitomo. By concentrating these heavy industries, as well as power- generating stations, offshore, Singapore has managed to locate these potentially pollutive industries well away from the city and residential areas. In 1999, a 2.3- km causeway was opened linking Jurong Island to the mainland. As most of the coral reefs were to be lost in the reclamation process, a translocation project was carried out in 1995 by the Nature Society (Singapore), with large quantities of living coral being moved to Sentosa.