Phillip Channel
The narrowest constriction of the Malacca and Singapore corridor, its deep water routes, and the reason the armed robbery record concentrates there.
The Phillip Channel is the narrowest navigable constriction on the route through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, at about 1.7 miles or 2.7 km on the US Energy Information Administration’s figure. It lies in the Singapore Strait south and southwest of Singapore and north of Batam, not in the Strait of Malacca , and writing that places it immediately west of Singapore has confused the two waterways.
The channel carries deep water routes that eastbound deep draught vessels must use under Rule 1 of the Rules for Vessels Navigating Through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, and in which they are to avoid overtaking so far as practicable under Rule 2. Rule 7 caps VLCCs and deep draught vessels at 12 knots over the ground here. Westbound traffic approaching Raffles Lighthouse must avoid impeding vessels constrained by their draught crossing from the channel to the single point mooring facility.
The same geometry that concentrates traffic concentrates crime. Ships slowing to about 5 knots in the eastbound lane are the targets of most of the armed robbery reported in the corridor, and 104 of the 108 incidents ReCAAP recorded in the straits in 2025 occurred in that lane. The full article will cover the channel geometry and charted depths, the routeing measures, the traffic profile and the security pattern.