A group of dignitaries including Minister Yoon Sang-jick of the Minsitry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Gov. 

Park Joon-young of South Jeolla Province, President Suh Moon-kyu of the Korea National Oil Corp., President 

Baek Moon-hyun of the Yeosu Oil Hub Korea, Yeosu Mayor Kim Choong-sik and Vice Chmn. Huh Jin-soo of 

GS Caltex, among others, turn the screws to dedicate the oil storage facilities at Yeosu at a ceremony on June 24 this year.

Minister Yoon Sang-jick of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy attended a ceremony to dedicate an oil storage facility in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, and also to announce the “Vision for a Northeast Asia Oil Hub” on June 24.

Those present at the event included President Suh Moon-kyu of Korea National Oil Corp.; President Baek Moon-hyun of the Yeosu Oil Hub Korea Co.; Mayor Kim Choong-sik of Yeosu City; and Vice Chairman Huh Jin-soo of GS Caltex, among some 300 participants.

The oil hub company plans to build large oil storage facilities in Ulsan and Yeosu to make Korea an oil storage and financial hub in Northeast Asia, which has been pushed since 2008 under the First National Energy Basic Plan.

The ceremony concludes the first stage of the oil storage construction plan in Yeosu at a total investment of 517 billion won, while the Ulsan storage facilities will continue to be built. The Yeosu oil storage facilities can store 8.2 million barrels of oil, the largest commercial oil storage in Korea, including 3.5 million barrels of crude oil and 4.7 million barrels of refined oil products.

Minister Yoon officially announced the Vision for a Northeast Asia Oil Storage Hub on the same level as those in the United States, Europe, and Singapore as the fourth largest oil hub in the world.

Under the plan, oil storage facilities large enough to hold 37 million barrels of crude oil will be built along with an international oil trade center, which will require the softening of regulations in order to make Korea a center for oil trade in Northeast Asia by 2017.

In order to create a successful oil storage and trade center in Korea, a thriving financial center is needed to back up an active oil product trade center with a well-run logistics system for oil refining and storage.

The establishment of an oil trading center along with a financial center will create many derivatives from the construction and operation of an oil logistics system and a financial system, as those two systems get mixed.

The declaration of the oil hub vision would boost the existing project centered around the construction of oil storage facilities to a higher level and would require the reform of related laws and regulations to perk up oil trading along with the creation of various software on the conditions for the opening of an oil trade center to show the government’s intention to bring the project to a successful end.

If the oil hub project becomes a successful venture, it will make the related sectors grow together including storage, transportation, logistics, and finance, among others, expanding investments and employment, making the energy industry a symbol for progress of the government’s Creative Economy aimed at creating jobs.

The oil hub will create 4.464 trillion won in productivity, 695.9 billion won in annual salaries, and employ 22,000 people, along with 948.1 billion won in value-added in the Ulsan area alone, according to a study by the Korea Development Institute (KDI) in 2009.

Singapore’s oil hub is known to have contributed 11.5 percent to the city state’s GDP.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a briefing session with investors in the Yeosu Oil Hub Korea Co., all told five domestic investors including the Korea National Oil Corp. (29 percent), SK (11 percent), GS (11 percent), Samsung Trading (10 percent), Seoul Line (8 percent), and LG Trading (5 percent) and a foreign investor, China Air Petroleum (26 percent).

The oil hub facilities include a jetty for berths for tankers of 200,000 tons, 120,000 tons, 80,000 tons, and 10,000 tons.