For Friendship and Development of Local Societies

SK E&C has been doing social works in the foreign countries in which it operates for the welfare and development of local societies

SK Engineering and Construction Co. a global leading builder, has been making social contributions in the countries in which they are working to boost the company’s social image and, in doing so, Korea’s global image as well.
The company, just prior to the launch of the Esmeraldas project in Ecuador, signed an agreement in a ceremony to donate books and education facilities worth $106,000 to Jaime Hurtado Gonzalez Primary School in Esmeraldas, located near the project site, the company said recently.
Attending the ceremony were President Choi Kwang-chol, in charge of plant construction for SK Construction; Korean Amb. to Ecuador Chang Keun-ho; President Machado of Ecuador National Oil Co.; the mayor of Esmeraldas; and the principal and other officials of the school.
The company will build approach roads to the school free of charge and donate black boards, desks and chairs worth $106,000, the company said.
SK Construction began its operations in Ecuador in February last year by taking over a project to build supplementary facilities at Esmeraldas Oil Refinery and then recently won another project for designing a large oil refinery in Ecuador worth $260 million.
SK Construction has done diverse social activities in countries in which it is engaged in various projects. The company donated Korean novels translated into English to university libraries in Kuwait and the UAE. The company restored a soccer field in Ghana and donated computers to a school nearby. In Mexico, the company gave support to a technical school. In Thailand, the company repaired roads damaged by floods and provided services to a number of orphanages. In Indonesia, the company donated textbooks to a school located near its project sites.
President Choi said SK Construction has been making contributions to local societies in the countries in which it is operating under its corporate ideal of making a better world for the happiness and affluent lives of humans.
In the meantime, SK E&C is likely to secure the largest oil refinery construction project in Ecuador when the project is ordered in the middle of next year by RDP, a joint venture firm between Petro Ecuador and PDVSA, a Venezuelan national oil company. SK Construction got the order to design the 300,000 barrels-per-day capacity oil refinery in March for $260 million in the Latin American country and is sure to get the $12.5 billion Manabi Oil Refinery project when it is ordered in the middle of 2011, the company said.
The Ecuadorian project would be the largest oil refinery project ever won by a Korean builder overseas if SK Construction gets it. The construction firm has been counting on the Middle East and Central and Latin America for most of its overseas projects so far and its efforts in those regions, especially in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and now in Ecuador are paying off, the officials said.
The most significant part of the project is that the company won the segment basic to oil refinery construction involving design, as it is the core part of the entire project. Construction companies in the United States and Europe have so far won most such projects and now SK Construction has been able to enter the arena for the first time, becoming one of the few construction companies in the world that can design an oil refinery whose capacity is as large as 300,000 barrels per day.
Winning the contract also meant that the abilities of Korean construction firms have been upgraded enough so that they can now enter regions other than the Middle East for general and plant construction projects, like Central and South America in particular.
The company recently said it won the Ruwais Oil Refinery Expansion Project Package 1 worth $2.17 billion involving the construction of a CDU (crude distillation unit) and its peripheral facilities, which is part of the $10 billion project for the oil complex, which has seven packages. The company will take charge of all phases of the project from design and purchase to construction on a turnkey basis, the company said.
The Ruwais Oil Refinery is located inside the Ruwais Petrochemical Complex some 250 km to the west of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, and is capable of refining 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2014 based on the contract signed with Takreer Co. So far, two packages have been put to an open bid and SK Construction won the first package of the project. nw

SK E&C officials attend a ceremony for presentation of books and education facilities worth $106,000 at Jaime Hurtado Gonzalez Primary School in Esmeraldas, near the company’s project site. President Choi Kwang-chol in charge of plant construction for SK E&C and Korean Amb. Chang Keun-ho to Ecuador attended the ceremony.