Aramco reaffirms support for S-Oil's Shaheen project

Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani, front, Saudi Aramco's president of downstream operations, leaves his signature on the 118-meter-high propylene tower at S-Oil's Shaheen project construction site in Ulsan, Monday. Courtesy of S-Oil

One of the president-level executives of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company and majority shareholder for S-Oil in Korea, visited the oil refiner's Shaheen project construction site in Ulsan to show support for the 9.2 trillion won ($6.5 billion) project aimed at building a petrochemical complex in the southeastern port city.

S-Oil said Tuesday that Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani, Aramco's president of downstream operations, visited the site a day earlier to encourage workers and pledge continued support for the project's success.

Al-Qahtani, who also serves as an S-Oil board member, was accompanied by S-Oil CEO Anwar Al-Hejazi and Aramco Asia Korea acting CEO Khalid Radi as they inspected the site, which reached a 69.1 percent completion rate as of Tuesday.

In March 2023, when the groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place, Al-Qahtani also visited a neighboring S-Oil plant, demonstrating his strong commitment to the investment.

During his latest visit, he examined the thermal crude-to-chemicals facility, steam cracker and polymer plant. He also signed the recently installed 118-meter-high propylene tower, wishing for safe construction and the project's success.

"I came to Korea to visit the project site before its construction peaks and show Aramco's appreciation to you and your work," Al-Qahtani said. "As an engineer who has been involved in many large-scale projects, I know firsthand how much effort goes into such a major undertaking and I recognize your sense of purpose: to deliver the project on time with the highest quality."

Describing the project as a testament to Aramco's commitment to petrochemicals, he said the work inspires not just S-Oil's future growth but also advancement in the global petrochemical market.

"We plan to supply basic feedstocks produced at the Shaheen project facilities, which have excellent cost competitiveness and high energy efficiency, mainly through pipelines to domestic petrochemical downstream companies," an S-Oil official said.

"By reliably supplying raw materials on time to downstream companies, we expect to not only save on logistics costs within the value chain but also create a competitive petrochemical industrial cluster, thereby leaving a positive impact in terms of revitalizing the local economy and strengthening Korea's industrial competitiveness."