CEO Nasser Al Mahasher of S-Oil.

S-Oil’s Onsan plant in Ulsan.(Photos:S-Oil)

In a congratulatory speech on the launching of the oil company’s magazine, “S-Oil Good Oil,” CEO Nasser Al Mahasher  said he will lead the oil company to create jobs through its project to strengthen the construction of oil refining and petrochemical complex and service activities. It will contribute to the national economy, he said, and sustainable growth of regional economy in Korea.

The CEO also said the oil company will pursue its target to be a top integrated energy company by leading in oil refining, lubrication and petrochemical businesses. Those are the most profitable sectors in the energy business, he said, going one step closer to realizing the “Grand Vision” of the oil company, showing that the oil company has been doing its fair share when it comes to responsibility as a corporate citizen, creating sustainable economic value.

It’s been an important year for Nasser Al-Mahasher

The CEO went hiking with 220 employees, including officers, team leader-level managers and 42 new employees at Mt. Cheonggye in Seoul on Jan. 10, and expressed hopeful New Year’s resolutions.

The CEO, who also climbed Peak Isu, exchanged well-wishing remarks with new employees. 

“This year, I ask all of you to pull the best of your resources and capabilities to successfully implement the RUC and ODC Project to build integrated refining-petrochemical facilities, which will become a key milestone in the history of S-OIL,” he said. “Although we are going through unprecedented difficulty, I trust that you will make 2015 the year when we turn crisis into opportunity and fully exert S-OIL’s spirit of enterprise to become braver when meeting more daunting challenges.”S-Oil decided to make daring investments in its oil refining, petrochemical and basic lube oil facilities under its strategy to ensure its dominance in those areas.

The strategy calls for the expansion of the heavy oil cracking facilities and production facilities for such high value-added petrochemical products as olefin, and propylene and other downstream products to be ready go online in 2017.

The oil refinery plans to expand its production of such high value-added products as propylene and olefin, the raw materials for resins, and light oil products like gasoline, kerosene and diesel, by cracking the low-cost bunker-C oil by investing around 5 trillion won, the largest investment by the company since 2011 when it built the largest paraxylene plant in the world at its Onsan Oil Refinery Complex in Korea.

Officials of the oil refinery said light oil like gasoline and petrochemical products like olefin and propylene will improve the company’s profitability.

S-Oil will also launch projects this month to improve the oil refining facilities at its Ulsan Complex to cut costs and boost effectiveness with an investment of around 200 billion won. It is a two-year project. The oil refinery wants to reduce the output of low value-added oil products with high value-added products such as low-sulfur diesel.

Aramco, which already holds 35 per cent of the Korean company, has struck a deal to buy nearly all of Hanjin Energy’s 28.4 per cent stake, Nasser Al Mahasher, the chief executive of S-Oil, told Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper at the weekend. Hanjin is 96.6 per cent owned by Korean Air.

The deal consolidates Saudi Aramco’s position in South Korea, where it supplies nearly all of the more than 600,000 barrels per day of crude that S-Oil processes. 

“There’s a continuing trend by the Gulf national oil companies to own more downstream mostly in Asia but of course in North America as well,” said Robin Mills, the head of consulting at Manaar Energy. “Part of it’s securing markets … There are advantages in setting up term contracts and having a consistent offtake of a certain grade of oil.”