GS Caltex, the first privately invested oil refinery in Korea, celebrated its 45th anniversary in a ceremony held on May 18, a day before its actual anniversary, at GS Tower in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul, with some 400 executives and staff of the oil refinery and cooperative firms attending led by GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo and GS Caltex Chairman Hur Dong-soo, among others.

 Chairman Hur in his congra-tulatory speech said GS Caltex exported 83.3 percent (30.2 trillion won) of the crude oil imported last year and as a result the oil refiner won the $20 billion Export Tower, placing it among the nation’s top exporters.

 Hur continued to say that the oil refinery would continue to make efforts to rank as a leading global oil refinery with every employee joining together in the great endeavor.

 The chairman also called for everyone involved to make GS Caltex a bridge that connects to the future through the GSC Way, focusing on three major actions: preemptive action, mutual cooperation, and the creation of superb performance results.

 Hur also called for close coop-eration with GS Energy, which was launched early this year for the purpose of crude oil exploration, power generation, city gas supply, LNG business, and others. 2

The company will also take up the production of core materials for solar batteries and waste material energy, among other new energy generation businesses.

He said there is a need for positive and diverse efforts to open up new business areas to overcome uncertain conditions at home and abroad.

 Hur, a graduate of Yonsei University, earned his masters and doctorate degrees at the University of Wisconsin Graduate School in Wisconsin, the United States, and worked for Chevron before returning home to work for Honam Oil Refinery, the predecessor of GS Caltex, as a section head in 1973. 

GS Caltex Corp. held a dedication ceremony for its new lube oil global logistics center at its Incheon Terminal on March 22, signaling the kick off of its global marketing campaign for its lube oil, attended by top executives of the oil refinery led by Chairman Hur Dong-soo.

 The oil refinery built the lube oil logistics center to handle increased exports of its lube oil overseas by building a storage container for 29,000 drums of lube oil and loading facilities at the logistics center inside the Incheon Terminal with a total space of 1,985 square meters.

The lube oil logistics center is the first such facility to have the high rack system to maximize the storage space, thus securing the maximum handling safety of lube oil including the loading and unloading of oil products.

 The new lube oil storage facility brings the total lube oil storage capacity to 52,000 drums and eases the loading system of lube oil to cope with the rising volume of lube oil exports, and for the stable supply of lube oil to its customers, the oil refinery said.

 Officials of the oil refinery said this year they will be able to complete the export infrastructure for lube oil with the capacity to load up to 100 containers daily by expanding the lube oil moving equipment.

 GS Caltex has been expanding its lube oil exports through tie-ups with other companies including Samsung Construction & Trading and Dongfeng Lubrication Oil Co. of China. The company also has a wholly-owned subsidiary in India and plans to set up more of them overseas, including China, and will open a branch office in Moscow, the company said.

Chairman Hur Dong-soo of GS Caltex attended a ceremony to open the Korean oil refinery’ s office in Abu Dhabi on March 31, along with some 50 participants including Chairman Yousef Omar bin Yousef of Abu Dhabi National Oil Corp., Korean Amb. Kwon Tae-kyun and officials of both local and foreign oil companies in Abu Dhabi including Japanese oil company officials.

 Chairman Hur said at the ceremony that we have had a very solid relationship with in the trade of crude oil in supply and distribution in particular and will continue to expand the close ties with state oil companies in the Middle East in such areas as oil exploration and the development of green energy in the days ahead.

 The Abu Dhabi office was the third overseas office of GS Caltex after offices in London and Singapore and the first one in the Middle East and it will take charge of various matters related to imports of crude oil, oil products and lubrication oil from the Middle East and strengthening ties with oil companies in the Middle East region and collecting information on oil market. The office will also work on the exploration of new oil markets in Africa, taking advantage of its geographical advantages connecting the Mediterranean and Africa.

 To cope with the tough market environment, GS Caltex, Korea’s No. 2 oil refiner, seeks to strengthen its core businesses, while accelerating development of new growth drivers this year. GS Caltex is a joint venture between Korea’s GS Holdings Corp. and U.S. Chevron Corp. 

In his New Year message, GS Caltex chief executive Hur Dong-soo said the company should continuously make profits from its petroleum, petrochemical and lubricant businesses, while developing fuel cells, thin-film cells, carbon materials and resource development as its new growth areas. 

To that end, the company has been focusing on its ongoing facility investment, while aggressively expanding into overseas markets. 

The company plans to increase the portion of its exports to more than 60 percent of its sales this year, up from 57 percent last year. Early this year, GS Caltex already secured orders for its oil products, which amount to 80 percent of its exports last year. It also plans to export all of its light oil products to be produced at its No. 3 heavy oil upgrading unit (HOU), which will begin commercial production in the latter half of this year. 

GS Caltex is leveraging its expertise in fuel cells to develop and commercialize fuel cells for households and commercial facilities, while accumulating technology to run hydrogen stations for fuel cell vehicles. It is also developing thin-film batteries, carbon materials and bio fuels. 

In 2006, GS Caltex has set up a new energy research center which has a floor space of 1,800 pyeong in Seongnae-dong, Seoul. The center boasts cutting-edge equipment and production facilities for research of new energy and new materials including household fuel cells, hydrogen stations, carbon materials used to make electric double layer capacitors. 

EDLCs, also known as supercapacitors, are able to store energy quickly and are used as supplementary power source for hybrid and electric cars. EDLCs are highly likely to be used in fuel cell vehicles.