The government held the ceremony of dedicating oil storage facilities in Yeosu and declaring the Northeast Asian oil hub vision.
▲ The aerial view of the project of building oil hub in Yeosu
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE, Minister: Yoon Sang-jick) held on June 24 the ceremony of dedicating oil storage terminal in Yeosu and declaring the Northeast Asian oil hub vision at Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) Yeosu Office.
The ceremony was attended by some 300 officials, executives and citizens, including Minister Yoon Sang-jick of the MOTIE, President Suh Moon-kyu of KNOC, President Baek Mun-hyeon of OKYC, Mayor Kim Chung-seok of Yeosu City, and Vice Chairman Heo Jin-su of GS Caltex.
With the goal of establishing Korea as the center of oil distribution and financial transactions in Northeast Asia by constructing large scale commercial oil storage facilities in Yeosu and Ulsan, the government has been carrying forward such projects since it included them in the first master plan for national energy.
As the first phase project of building the Northeast Asian oil hub, KNOC constructed the largest commercial oil storage terminal in Yeosu with the capacity of 8.2 million barrels by investing 517 billion won during the past 4 years, and started its operation in March 2013.
In his address, Minister Yoon Sang-jick declared the vision of the Northeast Asian oil hub, saying, “The government will establish one of world’s top four oil hubs in Korea, comparable with that in the United States, Europe and Singapore.”
Minister Yoon Sang-jick also said, “The Ministry will construct oil storage facilities with total capacity of 37 million barrels based on the plan and improve their operation ratio by easing regulations. And it will foster Korea as the center of oil transaction by opening an international petroleum exchange in the first half of 2017.”
In order to build the oil hub successfully, the country needs to build financial infrastructure where oil products can be actively traded between countries based on logistic infrastructures that can gather, process and manufacture oil products.
When the oil hub and international petroleum exchange are successfully established, new industries will be generated by combining oil distribution and international financial transactions through trading financial and various derivatives.
The government’s declaration of the Northeast Asian oil hub vision is evaluated as expression of its determination for expanding the project from construction of oil storage facilities to institutional improvement for invigorating distribution and trading of oil products, such as revision of regulations and establishment of the petroleum exchange.
The MOTIE expects the Northeast Asian oil hub project will succeed as a symbolic program of realizing the creative economy in energy industry by increasing investment and employment as related businesses, such as storage, transportation, distribution and financial service, will also grow.
Meanwhile, prior to the dedication ceremony, the MOTIE held a policy meeting with officials of related government agencies and public organizations, as well as executives at investors in the oil hub project, oil companies and oil market specialists.
At the meeting, the MOTIE presented ‘Progresses and Plans of the Northeast Asian Oil Hub Project’, and participants discussed opinions on direction of building the oil hub.
Source: todayenergy
