A view of a plant in Kuwait built by SK E&C, which has been very active in the Middle East by 

winning many plant construction projects in recent years.(Phot:SK E&C: article by SK Lee)

SK Engineering and Construction Co. will become the first Korean builder to build a liquefied natural gas plant overseas after signing an MOU with Magnolia LNG Co. to build an LNG plant near Lake Charles, Louisiana, in the United States, with an annual capacity to turn out 3.4 million tons of LNG worth $1.57 billion.

The company said it is scheduled to sign an official contract early next year on an EPC basis for the project, which will be the first time a project will be undertaken by builders other than ACPI and Conoco-Phillips, who own the basic technologies to build such liquefied LNG plants.

In the meantime, SK E&C has captured the clean fuels project, an oil refinery construction project with GS E&C and JGC of Japan worth $4.8 billion from Mina Al Ahmadi Co., (MAA) which is the 13th project that the company won in Kuwait thus far since the company first set its foot in the oil-rich Arab nation in 1994.

The company first won a construction project in Kuwait in 1996, a desulfurization plant construction project worth $150 million, which led to the company winning a project to repair fire damages from MAA in 2001. From 2001-2007, the company won three construction projects worth $2 billion each in Kuwait including crude oil storage facilities worth $2.1 billion in 2005 with the company setting a record for going 4,100 man-hours without an accident in the Arab nation.

From 2012-2013, the company won a project to modernize the power transformer facilities and crude oil storage facilities as well as a CFP project.

Manager Shim Won-seob of SK E&C’s Kuwait Branch Office, said the personnel ties with Kuwait National Petroleum Corp. and technologies accumulated over 20 years of undertaking various projects in Kuwait have been the main reason for SK E&C winning that many construction projects there.

The company is likely to have a very good year in Kuwait, with the host government ready to issue an order worth about $3.5 billion for the construction of light fuel and heavy oil deposit facilities in the first half. Kuwait also plans to issue an order for the construction of a new refinery project worth $15 billion to modernize its existing oil refining facilities.

Officials of SK E&C said they will try their best to win major projects to be ordered in Kuwait such as NRP to keep the company working in Kuwait.

“SK E&C has been growing steadily and gaining a solid reputation for providing civil, transportation, and telecommunication infrastructure as well as building solutions since its foundation in 1977. After SK Group’s acquisition of the Ulsan refinery and petrochemical complex in 1980, the company also began to grow process and power plant EPC capabilities to support the rapid expansion of the Ulsan Complex. Based on the successful project execution experience in Korea, SK E&C started expanding its global presence in the 90s and accelerated its global growth exponentially in the past decade,” said the two co-CEOs of SK E&C Casey Choi and Cho Ki-haeng in their joint statement on the company’s website.

“Recently, we have delivered many landmark projects to exceed customer expectations repeatedly. As a result, we have gained the full satisfaction and trust of major customers in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Our recent global success stories include many multi-billion dollar EPC projects for oil refining, gas processing, and power plants, unique development projects for eco-friendly buildings, and large infrastructure projects for national economic development,” said the two CEOs.