South Korea wants to be regional oil hub

South Korea has mapped out plans to transform its southern coastal area which houses the country’s main petroleum facilities into an “oil hub” for Northeast Asia. Under the plan, South Korea would build a 4.6-million-barrel crude and products storage facility by 2009 in the southern industrial city of Yeosu, home to the country’s second largest refiner, GS Caltex. The government will establish a joint corporation comprised of domestic and foreign companies for the project by November this year and start full-fledged efforts early next year, according to an official at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. A second phase would involve building a mammoth storage facility with a capacity of about 23 million barrels in Ulsan, South Korea’s main industrial city, home to the countrys largest refinery (SK Corp.) and the worlds largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries. After completion, the new industrial cities would serve as an oil hub for the Northeast Asian region, which accounts for 17% to 18% of the world’s oil trade. (May 4, 2007)