Vice Chairman Huh Jin-soo delivers a conguratulatory 

speech at the oil refinery's 46th anniversary on Sept. 19 at GS Tower in Seoul.

    Vice Chairman Huh Jin-soo of GS Caltex celebrated the 46th anniversary of the first private oil refinery in Korea on Sept. 19.

The vice chairman, at a ceremony to mark the anniversary held at GS Tower in Seoul on Sept. 16, recalled that the oil refinery started with a daily capacity of 60,000 barrels when it began its operations 46 years ago and has continued to expand its complex to be a global oil refiner equipped with VGOFCC. Last year, the oil refinery exported $25 billion worth of oil products and won the Export Tower from the government in recognition of the marvelous achievement of its great contribution to the growth of the national economy on its way to becoming a global energy enterprise.

Huh attributed the great success of the oil refinery to all of those who have worked and are working for the oil company, customers, partners, and most of all the shareholders whose trust and support have helped make the oil refiner a leading global energy company.

But CEO Huh said they should coldly reexamine the reform that they continuously pushed to see if it is truly what they want for the company, especially by checking from a zero base to see if the capacity and basic values that they have accumulated over more than four decades of the oil refinery’s operation can deal with the rapidly changing management environment.

At the same time, Huh asked for creativity and professionalism from everyone working for the oil refinery to make GS Caltex a super-class enterprise equipped with global competitiveness.

He said they have to enhance their ability to face problems with creative solutions in this day and age when preemptive measures are needed to cope with diverse crises and they also need strong professionalism as a base to turn challenges into results. “Sustainable development can only be achieved when these three factors, as a base for safety management, sound communication, and an open culture, make mutual survival a basic value,” Huh said.

At the end of the ceremony, model and long-term employees were presented with awards and citations in recognition of their contributions to the company.

Since its establishment in 1967 as the first private oil company in Korea, GS Caltex has always been at the heart of the energy industry, the vice chairman said in his introduction of the oil refinery on its internet website.

“For the past half century, we’ve dedicated ourselves to offering clean energy to enrich people’s lives and providing convenient, accessible energy services for the customers,” Huh said. “GS Caltex is the most competitive energy company in Korea that persistently strives to become a leader in the global energy industry. Powered by state-of-the-art technology and the success of our core businesses, including petroleum, petrochemical, base oil, and lubricants, the oil refinery currently exports petroleum and other petroleum-based products to 20 nations worldwide,” the vice chairman continued.

The oil refinery has a daily production capacity of 775,000 barrels of oil, of which more than 50 percent is exported. As the supplier of more than 30 percent of the oil consumed in Korea, the company is playing an important role in enhancing the competitiveness of the nation’s oil refinery industry. GS Caltex imports crude oil from the Middle East and Russia as part of its drive to diversify crude oil suppliers. The oil refinery has some 3,600 service stations and roughly 400 filling stations throughout Korea to supply fuel oil to automobiles, and its products are also supplied to industrial users, railways, and airlines.

As part of plans for business diversification using naptha produced at its oil refining facilities, the oil refinery constructed a polypropylene plant in 1988. That was followed by expansion into the aromatics business in 1990. Currently, GS Caltex manufactures basic petrochemicals ranging from everyday necessities to advanced materials.

In November 2007, GS Caltex began base oil production with a 16,000 BPSD capacity. Through the revamping of its base oil plant, the base oil production capacity was increased to 26,000 BPSD in 2011. The oil refinery also produces 9,000 BPSD of lubrication oil daily and 8,000 MTA of grease products a year.