KoreaToday S-OIL Boasts of Top-Rated Technology to Beat Crisis

By Kim Jae-won

Staff Reporter

When the global financial crisis hit the world in 2008, almost every industry suffered from the economic woes. The oil industry was no exception. The price of black gold dropped drastically threatening manufacturers and refiners in the nation as well as overseas.

However, S-OIL overcame the difficult time by heavily investing in high refinery technology.

Overcoming a crisis is not something unfamiliar to S-OIL. The birth of the local refiner was related to the 1973 oil crisis. It started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), a group inside the global oil exporting cartel ― OPEC― proclaimed an oil embargo in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur war. OAPEC declared it would limit or stop oil shipments to the United States and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict.

The international conflict affected Korea hard as the nation is not an oil-producing nation itself. Under those circumstances, Ssangyong Group founded a cooperative oil company with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in 1976 to ensure the stable import of the natural resource. The company changed its name to Ssangyong Oil in 1980 as NIOC sold its stake at the time. S-OIL became an independent corporation from the Ssangyong Group in 1999, and has kept its current name since then.

Bunker-C Cracking Center

In May 1991, S-OIL signed a joint venture agreement with Aramco, a state-run Saudi Arabian oil company, the world's largest oil producing country. With a stable supply of crude oil guaranteed for 20 years by the crude oil purchase agreement with Aramco, the company has successfully laid a foothold for their take-off. In order to build a large-scale Bunker-C oil cracking plant, S-OIL invested 1 trillion won under the joint venture agreement.

As the Bunker-C oil cracking plant was completed in April 1997, the firm could leap forward as a next-generation oil refinery equipped with world-class technology. In December 1997, S-OIL constructed a Xylene Center capable of producing large volumes of para-xylene, the raw material of petrochemical products. This contributes greatly to a dramatic upgrading of BTX ― benzene, toluene and xylene ― products.

Thanks to the joint venture with Aramco, global oil markets and especially nations in the Asia-Pacific region began to recognize the reliability of S-OIL. This recognition and reliability have contributed to overseas sales in the area.

Today, S-OIL is a large oil refining company with a refining capacity of 580,000 barrels a day. Keeping pace with such achievements, the company operates light oil desulfurizing facilities, gasoline manufacturing facilities, high-class lube base oil production facilities and the BTX production facilities.

S-OIL also operates a large-scale Bunker-C oil cracking center. This center is capable of producing light oils and low-sulfur oil products to effectively cope with the changes in circumstances, such as the increased demand for light oil products in the domestic and overseas markets, and the strengthened environmental regulations.

Eco-Oriented Management

S-OIL is eager to preserve the environment taking it as a corporate mission. From the initial plant construction stage, the oil refiner completed desulfurizing facilities, advanced sewage treatment facilities and dust collectors, making every effort to produce environment-friendly products by improving facilities and introducing new processes.

S-OIL has set up its own environment policy and all of its employees as well as executives are strongly encouraged to maintain the eco-friendly principles. In November 1996, the oil company acquired ISO14001 (Environment Management System) from the Korea Quality Certification Center in order to cover all processes in relation to the production of petroleum products, lube base oil and petrochemical products, acquiring an official and international recognition of the environment-oriented management.