SK E&C Sweeps Kuwait

Wins many orders in the Middle East country due to long-term relations: Company also clinches presidential citation

SK Engineering and Construction Co. won project orders totaling 2.4 trillion won in Kuwait in the past three years, achieving a uniquely outstanding position in plant project orders within a single Arab country in the Middle East. The Korean builders swept the orders in such projects as an aromatic plant construction, a crude oil gathering center and other large construction project orders, company officials said recently.
The company also won the Presidential citation for its contribution to the construction industry in the country during the ceremony for the 60th Construction Day on June 20 at the Coex Center in Seoul.
No one will deny that SK E&C has the best capabilities to build petrochemical plants in the world, but the fact that the company has been able to secure such large pile of orders in Kuwait alone has been due to its management ability expressed by 'Separate, but together,'which is the SK Group's management ideal. Each affiliate would do its given job alone,
but all get together when there is a need such as large projects in Kuwait for successful results for the group.
SK E&C and SK Corp. pool their strength together under the group's management ideal, 'Separate, but together,'which produced synergistic effects that led to win the large order, the company officials said.
They said when SK Corp. completed its plant in 1962, the first crude oil imported was from Kuwait. Following the 1991 Gulf War, SK bought crude oil first from Kuwait in a show of the solidarity with Kuwait. SK Chairman Chey Tae-won prolific oil diplomacy to secure energy resources focused on the Kuwaiti government and officials of Kuwait Oil Co. has played a big role for winning the orders.
SK E&C's construction capability displayed while undertaking many projects in Kuwait, SK Corp.'s imports of crude oil from Kuwait over some 40 years building trust with the Arab country and Chairman Chey's wide-ranging human contacts have paid off, the officials said.
An oil gathering center gathers crude oil from well heads and extricates water,
salt and gas from the crude and sends gas and oil to storage tanks.
The latest order that SK E&C received was an order for an oil gathering center in Kuwait from KOC, amounting to $620 million. The company beat five rival bidders in an open bidding process for the order.
President Yoo Woong-suk signed the contract with KOC Chairman Farouk Al-Zanki in the presence of Chairman Chey. Also present were Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Kim Young-ju and his Kuwaiti counterpart Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah to congratulate the signing. The Korean minister, in his speech, said the signing would be a chance to further solidify the development of plant industries in Kuwait.
The projected oil gathering center will be built in Sabriyah Field some 50 km north of Kuwait City to replace an oil gathering center destroyed during the Iraqi invasion on a turn-key basis. SK Construction will take charge of every thing from design, purchasing to construction to build the complex which will able to handle 165,000 barrels of oil daily when completed in 42 months of time.
The GC-24 project as the project is named by KOC is significant to Kuwait because it will wipe out remnants of the Iraqi invasion by rebuilding the oil gathering center destroyed completely by Iraqis.
In the meantime, SK E&C won a lube oil production plant construction and revamp work order to build a lube oil plant in Dumai, Sumatra, Indonesia, worth $150 million and revamp old facilities. When completed in 26 months, the plant will produce 9,000 barrels of lube oil daily for its owner Pertamina, an oil company owned by the government.
SK E&C won an order to build an oil refinery in Thailand on a turnkey basis, showing that the company's desire to secure overseas construction orders is paying off. Officials of the company are heartened by the fact that their lube plant construction technologies acquired from building similar facilities in the country are working overseas.
They are especially satisfied that the company is winning projects in areas other than the Middle East where majority of overseas orders came from showing that its global strategy is working. nw

(photos from above) President Yoo Woong-suk of SK Engineering and Construction Co. poses for a photo after signing an agreement to build an aromatics plant in Kuwait July 2, 2006.
SK E&C President Yoo shakes hands with Chairman Farouk Al-Zanki of Kuwait Oil Corp. after signing a contract to build an oil gathering center in Kuwait early this year.
Dignitaries from Korea and Kuwait pose for a photo session including MOCIE Minister Kim Young-ju, 4th R, SK E&C Chairman Chey Tae-won, 3rd R, and Kuwaiti Industry Minister Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, 3rd L.