ULSAN < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(SEJONG = Yonhap News) South Korea launched its second commercial oil terminal on Wednesday, another step toward building an oil hub that will be the second-largest in Asia and fourth in the world with a holding capacity of over 36 million barrels for international sales or local use when completed.

The near US$2 billion Northeast Asian oil hub project was launched in 2008 when the country began building its first commercial oil terminal in Yeosu, located some 450 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

The Yeosu facility with a maximum storage capacity of 8.2 million barrels was completed in June 2013.

A new facility with a maximum capacity of 9.9 million barrels will be built in the eastern port city of Ulsan, 410 kilometers from Seoul, by 2017, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The second stage program got under way earlier in the day in a ceremony that also marked the launch of a joint venture, Korea Oil Terminal Co., Ltd.

"The Northeast Asian oil hub project is a bold and ambitious plan to build large commercial oil storage facilities in Yeosu and Ulsan, and turn the country into a regional hub of oil and financial transactions," the ministry said in a press release.

South Korea plans to build a separate facility in Ulsan with a storage capacity of 18.5 million barrels by 2020.

Once completed, the facilities will turn the country into the world's fourth-largest oil hub after the United States, Europe's ARA and Singapore, according to the ministry.

An earlier study by the state-run Korea Development Institute said the oil hub project will create some 22,000 new jobs while boosting the country's total output by over 4.4 trillion won ($4.11 billion) per year.

bdk@yna.co.kr

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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Jan. 8, 2014)