Aramco forging greater Korea-S. Arabia partnership

By Kang Seung-woo

Saudi Aramco, the state-run oil company of Saudi Arabia, held an exhibition under the theme of “Partnership in Prosperity” Tuesday in Seoul to explain cooperation between Korea and Saudi Arabia in the areas of construction, general business, finance, and academic exchanges and to extend gratitude to Korean partners. The three-day exhibition is scheduled to run through Thursday.

The Middle Eastern country’s high-profile figures, including Finance and National Economy Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Aramco President and CEO Khalid Al-Falih, attended the opening ceremony and welcomed guests from a variety of fields, including Korean government officials, business leaders, and scholars.

Al-Falih and the oil firm’s other senior executives are currently in Seoul to attend a board meeting of Aramco this week. The company held its meeting in Beijing last year.

At the ceremony, Saudi Aramco expressed its gratitude to Korean partners, tracing the past 40 years of history in Korea-Saudi Arabia cooperation that began in the 1970s in the area of construction and has now been extended to business, finance, academic research and other diverse range of areas.

Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco signed a deal with the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure), which calls for K-sure to provide financing for the Saudi Arabian company’s building orders won by Korean companies.

It also clinched a preliminary deal with the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank), Korea’s government-owned trade lender, to boost business cooperation.

Under the deal, Eximbank plans to offer payment guarantees and provide financial support for Korean firms in a bid to help more local companies take part in an array of resource development projects to be pursued by Saudi Aramco.

Earlier the day, the CEO said in a meeting organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) that the Saudi Arabian company will transform S-Oil, a Korean oil refiner in which Aramco is a majority shareholder, into one of the world’s largest high-tech oil refineries as it has increased its refining capacity to 650,000 barrels a day at its refinery complex in Onsan, Ulsan.

Saudi Aramco is the largest shareholder of the oil refine with 35 percent after purchasing the stake in SsangYong Oil Refining Company in 1991.

In addition, he asked Korean companies to join in its domestic and global projects worth an estimated $125 billion (135 trillion won).

According to him, Saudi Aramco has a plan to increase its daily refining capacity to 6 million barrels from the current 4 million barrels, while expanding its existing refining centers and its natural gas production capacity to more than 14 billion cubic feet a day over the next five years.