GS Engineering and Construction won a huge project to build a gas plant worth $2.6 billion t from PDVSA Gas, an affiliate of PDVSA, the national gas company in Venezuela, the company said recently.
The signing for the Pirital-I Project took place in Caracas, Venezuela, where the home office of the Venezuelan gas company in located. It occurred in the presence of leading executives of both companies, led by President Anton Castillo of PDVSA Gas, Representative Huh Sun-haeng of GS E&C’s Plant Division and Korean Ambassador Maeng Dal-young, and about 17 more people.
GS E&C will take charge of the entire project, which is to be built in the Pirital region some 360 km southeast of Caracas, the capital of the south American nation.
The projected new gas plant will have liquefaction and separation facilities with a daily capacity of 1 billion cubic meters of gas and pipelines to the El Jose storage complex some 174 km away on the coastline. The project should be completed in 50 months and construction will start as soon as the financial arrangement for the huge project is completed, as the project is based on the builder taking care of design, purchase, construction and test-runs with the project owner taking charge of financial arrangement.
GS E&C clinched a different project to build an oil refinery in the South American country last year from the state-owned petroleum company. This new project is the second one solidifying the company’s strategy to advance into Latin America to diversify its construction market around the world.
In the meantime, GS Group, Korea's seventh-largest conglomerate by assets, aims to expand its energy, construction and retail businesses in Indonesia as part of a globalization strategy to find new growth engines outside Korea.
The group has already established a significant presence in one of the most vibrant economies in Southeast Asia, but wants to expand its operations to capitalize on the nation's abundant natural resources and rapidly growing consumer market.
GS held a meeting of the heads of its major affiliates in Jakarta from Wednesday to Thursday, discussing how to expand its presence in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.
CEOs, including GS Group Vice Chairman Suh Kyung-suk and GS Engineering & Construction (E&C) Vice Chairman Huh Myung-soo reviewed the group’s current businesses in Indonesia and examined ways of expanding operations there.
They also shared ideas on how to establish a strong presence in the region to achieve its goal of becoming a global enterprise.
The meeting was the fourth of its kind held abroad after the first one in China's Qingdao in 2011, the second in Singapore in 2012 and the third in Beijing in 2013.
Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo sent a message to meeting participants, calling on them to come up with effective strategies to establish a foothold in Indonesia and other parts of the region. The chairman had initially planned to attend the gathering, but he had to go to Italy to attend various business meetings on the sideline of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
In a recorded message, Huh said: "Southeast Asia is abundant with natural resources, and has a rapidly growing consumer market. The region is not geographically far from Korea. So, our energy, retail and construction units should actively seek new growth opportunities in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations.''
