Another Big Occasion at GS Caltex

Oil refiner dedicates 3rd heavy oil cracking tower and kicks off construction of 4th tower in a ceremony



A slew of dignitaries at a ceremony on May 12 for the dedication of the third heavy oil cracking tower at GS Caltex refinery in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, push buttons led by Prime Minister Km Hwang-sik, Gov. Park Joon-young of South Jeolla Province and Chairman Hur Dong-soo of GS Caltex.


A group of dignitaries shovel earth at a ground-breaking ceremony for the 3rd heavy oil cracking tower at GS Caltex on May 12 led by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, Gov. Park Joon-yang and Chairman Hur Dong-soo of GS Caltex.

GS Caltex held a ceremony at its Yeosu Oil Refinery in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, on May 12 to dedicate its third heavy oil cracking tower and to launch construction of its fourth heavy oil cracking tower with a slew of dignitaries in attendance led by Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik; Rep. Kim Young-hwan, chairman of the Knowledge Economy Committee of the National Assembly; Gov. Park Joon-young of South Jeolla Province; and Chairman Oh Kang-hyun of the Korea Petroleum Association.
Chairman Hur Dong-soo said in his speech that some 3.3 trillion won has been invested in the project since 2008, the largest project the oil refinery has ever undertaken since it began operations. GS Caltex will invest 1.1 trillion won for the construction of its fourth heavy oil cracking tower, scheduled for completion in 2013, with the capacity to process 53,000 barrels of heavy oil daily, boosting the oil refinery's daily heavy oil cracking capacity to 268,000 barrels, topping any other oil refiner in Korea, the company said. The nation's second largest oil refinery will be able to increase the share of its heavy oil processing to total oil refining to 35.5 percent, up from the current 28.3 percent, when the new oil cracking center is complete. The third heavy oil cracking facility is capable of processing 60,000 barrels of heavy oil daily. The heavy oil cracking facilities, called VR HCR in official terminology, are also called oil wells on land as they squeeze light oil from such heavy residual oil as asphalt and bunker-C. The facilities at GS Caltex are the 7th largest among world oil refineries after Shell and British Petroleum.
The pipes used in the oil cracking facility stretch for 670 km, about the same distance as from Seoul to Yeosu, and the length of cables used comes to 2,800 km, four times the length of the pipes, in addition to enough cement to build 3,000 apartment units.
It was Chairman Hur who hatched the idea to build heavy oil cracking facilities at the Yeosu refinery back in the early 1990s using his experience working for Chevron Oil as a researcher following getting a PhD at the University of Wisconsin. Heavy residual oil like bunker-C sold well then to shipping firms and heavy plants with large boilers, but he foresaw that environmental problems caused by those heavy oils would be untenable in the future and demand for light oil such as gasoline and kerosene would rise along with their prices. GS Caltex built its first heavy oil cracking facilities in 1995, capable of processing 94,000 barrels of heavy oil daily, and completed another one in 2007, this time with the capacity to process 61,000 barrels of heavy oil per day, boosting the heavy oil processing rate by the refinery to 21.8 percent of its total refinement of crude oil. The heavy oil cracking facilities are a green-growth technology as they reduce toxic gases by turning out light oil with low sulfur contents and higher fuel efficiency.
Chairman Hur, who has been heading the KBCSD (Korea Business Council for Sustainable Development) since 2002, made no secret of his abiding interest in green growth to the extent that he let his oil refinery invest a considerable amount of funds in environmental areas. In order to prevent the pollution of the earth, he let the oil refinery lay oil pipelines above ground, invested in wastewater treatment facilities and air pollution prevention facilities as well at a cost of some 370 billion won.
The fourth heavy oil cracking tower now being built will have VGO FCC to reduce the amount of chemical gases that are generated mixing with the air by 70,000 tons annually.
GS Caltex will be able to increase exports of light oil by $1 billion annually when the fourth heavy oil cracking facilities are completed and put online. To cope with the tough market environment, GS Caltex, Korea? No. 2 oil refiner, seeks to strengthen its core businesses, while accelerating development of new growth drivers this year. GS Caltex is a joint venture between Korea? GS Holdings Corp. and U.S. Chevron Corp. In his New Year's message, Hur said the company should continuously make profits from its petroleum, petrochemical and lubricant businesses, while developing fuel cells, thin-film cells, carbon materials and resource development as its new growth areas. To that end, the company has been focusing on its ongoing facility investment, while aggressively expanding into overseas markets. The company plans to increase the portion of its exports to more than 60 percent of its sales this year, up from 57 percent last year. nw



Photos on Courtesy of GS Caltex