GS Caltex Supplies
Heavy Oil to North Korea

Delivers 21,000 tons of heavy oil to the North for the first time since 1994

GS Caltex, Korea's second largest oil refiner, supplied 21,000 tons of heavy oil to North Korea. GS Caltex said the oil tanker Rui Jin Tan, containing 21,000 tons of heavy oil, left Yeosu for North Korea's Songlim and Seonbong ports on Oct. 28.
The supplies were part of the 50,000 tons of heavy oil promised to North Korea in accordance with an agreement reached during the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. GS Caltex won the contract from the United States Agency for International Development (US AID) to supply 21,000 tons of heavy oil to North Korea, and the remaining 29,000 tons is to be handled by the crude oil trading company, VITOL.
The Rui Jin Tan arrived at the pier of GS Caltex's Yeosu plant at 4 p.m. on Oct. 27 to load the heavy oil before leaving in the afternoon of Oct. 28 for North Korea's Songlim and Seonbong ports.
A GS Caltex official said, "We still remembered our 1994 shipment of heavy oil to North Korea that attracted global attention.
If we are given the opportunities to supply heavy oil to the North in the future, we will make our utmost to make preparations and supply it without a hitch."It is the first time that the heavy oil produced from South Korea was delivered to the North following the recent inter-Korean summit talks in North Korea said the official, expressing the hope that GS Caltex's latest delivery of heavy oil would facilitate inter-Korean relations.
FOREIGN TECHNICIANS LEARN LESSONS FROM GS CALTEX.
Foreign engineers and technicians from a Chinese refinery and the Sohar Refinery Company in Oman, with which GS Caltex signed a technical tie-up visited GS Caltex's Yeosu plant to learn from the company's expertise.
The number of visitors on benchmarking tours totals about 300, including 40 from the Sohar Refinery Company who have come here on four occasions.
A team of 12 engineers from the Sohar Refinery Company returned home after completing a training program from Aug. 13-24. They held a commencement ceremony after undergoing a one-on-one training program in seven processes, including the crude distillation unit (CDU), residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC), the hydro desulfurization unit (HDS) and utility.
Mohammed Al Hashmi, one of the trainees who underwent a field study in the RFCC sector, said the training program offered both theoretical and practical studies, so it would help him carry out his duties by experiencing how to solve problems through the one-on-one program.
A company official said the training program catering to those in the production and technology fields of petrochemical and refinery plants in such countries as China and those in the Middle East will be conducive to not only exporting technology abroad, but also nurturing close relations and bilateral manpower development with foreign countries.
The official said the program is not just a commissioned work, but a buildup of partnerships that extend to manpower development, thus contributing to the future of the energy industry. nw

Crew members of GS Caltex are at work at Yeosu port to load heavy oil into an oil tanker, which is to leave the port for North Korea. (right photo) GS Caltex Chairman Hur Dong-soo