President Chung Cheol-kil of SK Innovation Co.

(Photo:SKG)

In his New Year’s speech on Jan. 2, President Chung Cheol-kil of SK Innovation said the company is faced with a crisis “like a winter storm” and should rearm with the SKMS and SUPEX Spirit to create a winning culture at the oil refinery and its affiliates.

The president who is in overall charge of running the oil refinery from Jan. 1, called for the company to overcome the crises as the first task facing the company. He made the speech at the New Year’s ceremony held at SK Seolin Building in Seoul, which also turned out to be his inaugural speech as the president in charge of overall matters. SK Innovation agreed with China National Offshore Oil Company(CHOOC) to explore two mining districts in South China Sea on Feb.11. President Kim Ki-tae of SK Innovation E&P signed the agreement with the Chinese oil exploration company on Feb. 10 in Shenzen, China, where the Chinese oil company maintains its head office. The two mining districts, one 5,138 suare km wide and the other 768.6 square Km wide are located close to Hong Kong, away from the area where China, Vietnam and the Philippines are engaged in territorial conflicts, SK Innovation said.

SKMS is a unique management system for SK Innovation and SUPEX, the abbreviation of Super Excellent, “the top most point that can be reached by humans,” according to the company. 

Chung said that SK Innovation has a lot of experience in taking charge of crises and overcoming them and has a strong corporate culture. Its employees will be able to make them opportunities, with everyone working for the company doing his or her best.

Chung said the company survived the last year and kept its operation intact, but the crisis is not completely over, putting the company into a situation where it has to overhaul its structure. 

“We should face the crisis as it is and be prepared to deal with it carefully and seriously,” Chung said. “We should rearm with SKMS and SUPEX spirit, the strongest weapons to fight with the crisis on hand so that we can create a winning spirit to achieve the targets for this year under the principle of self-rule and responsibility, the new president said.” 

He added that major structures of the company’s operation should be reformed, including the business structure, financial structure, and others, to secure survival conditions for the company. 

Profitability should be boosted to ensure the company’s survival by reforming core technologies and marketing strategies. He said he is sure that the current crisis may turn out to be a blessing in disguise to make the company stronger, and he will be at the forefront of moves to improve the company’s operation, along with management team members.

SK innovation has been leading Korea’s energy industry for the past five decades. Early on, the company expanded into overseas resource exploration. These efforts have seen tangible results in projects in Vietnam, Peru, Brazil and elsewhere, elevating our global stature in natural resource development. “Today, our participation in 29 blocks located in 16 countries has provided the foundation for us to compete head-on with the world's largest players.,” the company said.  

“Our continuous innovation and R&D efforts have provided us with world-class competencies in the alternative energy sector, and our advanced technologies are now used in the US, Vietnam, China, Japan, Europe and elsewhere. Particularly, in the battery business for electric vehicles that we boast the world-class technology, we secured a bridgehead for inroads to the global market by entering into supply contracts with global leading automakers. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which sequestrate CO2 underground, and CO2 emission reduction methods are now being developed globally.” 

SK Energy is working on carbon conversion and utilization, through which carbon dioxide can be turned into a resource, helping to mitigate global warming while producing new materials. As such, SK Energy is developing pioneering technologies for the future. 

SK Innovation remains engaged in social contribution activities to promote happiness throughout the world. 

“Our corporate social responsibility programs do more than simply return part of our profits to society; they fulfill our role and responsibilities as a corporate citizen,” the company said. “Our CSR activities go beyond donating money or organizing one-time events. We are concerned about fundamental problems in society. Our efforts to solve these problems are helping to create value and change society.”