Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Sunday that South Korea has agreed to increase its purchases of Iranian oil after a nuclear deal with world powers cleared the way for an easing of international sanctions on Tehran.
Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by Hanwha Energy for the design and supply of a steam generator for a new power plant in South Korea. The win comes just a day after the company announced it had entered in an extension on the UZ750 project on one of the Gulf’s largest oil fields. Amec Foster Wheeler said under the contract it will design and supply the 100 MWe steam generator for the power plant’s boiler island and provide onsite technical advisory services.
South Korea's GS Caltex Corp is expected to cut refinery runs further in September after trimming throughput by nearly 3 percent in August to combat weak margins, traders said on Thursday. The country's second-biggest refiner by capacity after SK Energy has cut throughput to about 720,000 barrels per day (bpd) so far this month versus July. But traders said GS Caltex was likely to keep refinery runs at or above 700,000 bpd as demand for jet fuel and kerosene could increase towards year-end on heating fuel demand in winter.
These images show the Glen Lyon FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) vessel under construction in South Korea. The state-of-the-art FPSO will eventually make a journey across the world to work on the £3billion Quad 204 redevelopment project of the Schiehallion and Loyal fields, west of Shetland. Glen Lyon replaces the Schiehallion FPSO, which started producing oil in 1998 and continued doing so for 15 years until operations were suspended for Quad204 subsea work.
South Korea's S-Oil Corp, the country's third-largest refiner, said on Wednesday it sees a recovery in industry-wide second-half refining margins after a recent dip. S-Oil whose main shareholder is Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom's state oil giant, reported a 613 billion Korean won ($533 million) profit in the second quarter from a 238.1 billion won profit a quarter earlier and a 54.4 billion won loss a year ago, helped by more stable oil prices and healthy margins. The refiner said it expected margins to recover to a solid level following a recent correction.
South Korea's GS Engineering and Construction Corp has signed a contract to expand a Korea Petrochemical Industry Co (KPIC) naphtha cracking plant for 311 billion Korean won ($270 million), the two companies said on Wednesday. The project will help KPIC expand its ethylene production capacity to 800,000 tonnes per year (tpy) from 490,000 tpy, along with its raising benzene, toluene and xylene production capacity to 300,000 tpy from 220,000 tpy, according to the builder GS E&C in a statement.
China is set to become Asia’s nuclear powerhouse as it is predicted to surpass South Korea and Russia in generating energy capacity by 2020. The country has been increasing its nuclear output in recent years which, according to new analysis, it plans to leverage so it can take an “ownership role” throughout the entire supply chain. Data from the EIA (Energy Information Administration) shows nuclear output currently makes up slightly more than 2% of the country’s total power generation.
Refiners in South Korea, the world's fifth-largest crude oil importer, have stepped up spot purchases this year, buying at prices depressed by an oil glut as they run their plants at high rates to catch strong processing margins. With the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers keeping crude taps open in spite of soft global demand growth, tens of millions of unbought barrels have built up in floating storage sites and dragged down international oil markets. Still, the profit earned on turning a barrel of Dubai crude into fuel have held at $7.50-$9 a barrel this year - well above annual averages since at least 1997 - as crude benchmarks dipped to multi-year lows, sparking consumer demand for gasoline and naphtha.
South Korea's GS Caltex Corp is set to receive a shipment of 2 million barrels of West African crude, dwarfing the country's usual purchases from the region as it looks to diversify supply away from the Middle East.
SK Innovation, which owns South Korea's biggest refiner, said it plans to raise investment in US shale fields. The company said in a statement it wanted to expand its shale gas fields in both Oklahoma and Texas, which it acquired last year, into nearby areas.
The University of Aberdeen has signed an historic agreement to establish its first international campus in South Korea which could help train oil workers of the future. As previously revealed on Energy Voice, millions is set to be spent on teaching students on a real platform off the Gwangyang cost. Academics had said the unique joint venture with the South Korean government was a “statement of optimism” in the future of the energy sector, which has been hit hard by a global sump in oil prices. At a ceremony held in the city of Changwon, representatives from the University put pen to paper on an agreement between the University and its partners in the project, the Gyeongsangnamdo Prefecture, Gwangyang Bay Free Economic Zone Authority, and Hadong County.
The establishment of the University of Aberdeen’s first international campus will be a proud and significant moment in our long history. As an ambitious research-driven University with an international outlook, this as a hugely exciting initiative, and one which is a testament to our ambitions to position ourselves as a global institution which is at the forefront of energy-related research and teaching. The campus will be a mutually beneficial collaboration that will allow us to export our world-class educational offering to a new market in East Asia, providing education and training in offshore subjects relevant to the South Korean industry, and meeting the needs of the country’s economy.
The next generation of North Sea oil workers could be trained thousands of miles away in South Korea under a pioneering deal struck by higher education chiefs. Aberdeen University has announced plans to create its first international campus in Asia – where millions will be spent teaching students on a real platform off the Gwangyang coast. Granite City academics said the unique joint venture with the South Korean government was a “statement of optimism" in the future of the energy sector, which has been hit hard by a global sump in oil prices. The proposed campus will provide students with “large-scale, real-life testing facilities”, including a fully functional training rig to give students the hands-on experience they need.
Aberdeen University has revealed plans to create its first international campus in Asia. Professor Seth Kunin, vice-principal for internationalisation, spoke to Energy Voice about the Aberdeen University's first international hub, which will have its very own platform off the Gwangyang coast. He said the move would help position the institution in South Korea and open up the opportunity for expansion to other regions across the world.