Cosmo Oil may outsource to Hyundai Oilbank

Cosmo Oil Co. may ask its South Korean partner, Hyundai Oilbank Co., to manufacture petroleum products. The two companies already have a 48 billion yen (US$614 million) petrochemical joint venture which is building a paraxylene plant at Hyundai Oilbank’s refinery. Hyundai Oilbank has been supplying Cosmo Oil with products since the March earthquake. The outsourcing arrangement could help lift the two companies’ profitability. Cosmo Oil already operates four refineries in Japan, with a total refining capacity of 635,000 barrels per day (bpd), although output at its facility in Chiba has been suspended since the earthquake. The Daesan refinery of Hyundai Oilbank has a daily capacity of 390,000 bpd. (October 21, 2011)