SEOUL: South Korea's SK Energy is targeting a full restart of its blackout-hit refining and petrochemical units including crude distillation units (CDUs) by the end of this week, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.
An unexpected power cut in South Korea's southeastern oil and petrochemical hub of Ulsan on Tuesday hit the refining and petrochemical plants of the country's largest crude oil refiner, fully owned by SK Innovation.
"We are trying to restart units step by step including CDUs that were closed due to the power cut," a spokesman at SK Energy told Reuters by phone. "We expect all the units to operate normally by the end of this week. We see no supply disruptions to oil products."
A company source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, separately said on Wednesday that all CDUs in Ulsan, with a total capacity of 840,000 barrels per day, had been closed due to the power cut.
According to a statement from the ministry of knowledge economy late on Tuesday, state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) resumed power supply 15 minutes after the unexpected cut triggered by a glitch hit refining and petrochemical facilities in the city of Ulsan.
SK Energy also runs two naphtha crackers with a combined capacity of 860,000 tonnes per year and heavy oil upgrading facilities with a combined capacity of 172,000 bpd in Ulsan.
Regional traders said on Tuesday that any delays in gasoil cargoes were likely to have an impact as SK Energy is one of the largest exporters of diesel, but the impact may be minimal as demand is lackluster in Asia with Indonesian imports remaining stable for December and China's domestic diesel demand steady.
Shares of SK Innovation were unchanged as of 0308 GMT on Wednesday versus the wider market's rise of 0.64 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.