Oil refiners ordered to repay ministry

A Korean court yesterday ordered five local oil refiners to pay back the government 81 billion won (US$86.30 million) for jointly rigging the prices of oil sold to the military. The court ruled partly in favor of the Defense Ministry in its suit filed against five oil refiners: SK Corp., SK Incheon Oil, Hyundai Oilbank, GS Caltex and S-Oil. The ministry sought 158.4 billion won (US$168.77 million) in compensation. We recognize that the companies violated laws by jointly rigging the price of oil provided to the ministry through an open bid, a judge said. The companies, accused of colluding in the bid between 1998 and 2000, got 712.8 billion won (US$759.50 million) worth of contracts. The ministry ended up paying an extra 114 billion won (US$121.47 million) because of the collusion, according to a written opinion submitted to the court by an economic research institute at Seoul National University. (January 24, 2007)