Gov’t to set up thrifty gas station in public Seoul lot

The government intends to set up a so-called altteul, or thrifty, gas station in a public parking lot in Seoul to tackle the difficulty of expanding such establishments in the metropolitan area.

In a follow-up measure to boost competition among gas stations, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said yesterday in a release that it would establish a thrifty gas station in a public parking lot in Nowon District, northeastern Seoul in August.

The government came up with the concept of altteul gas stations last year to encourage more price competition for gasoline and diesel.

There are 554 thrifty gas stations nationwide ? 141 independent gas stations, 65 run by Korea Expressway and 348 operated by Nonghyup.

It aims to increase the number of such stations to 600 by the end of this month and to 1,000 by the end of the year.

However, it is difficult to increase the number of such gas stations in Seoul as land prices are high and a large number of gas stations are operated by four oil refineries in the country.

There are only six thrifty gas stations in Seoul and there will be five more in the near future.

Samsung Total Petrochemicals will become the third supplier of gasoline for altteul gas stations as it will start delivering gasoline to the stations in early July. Some 35,000 barrels will be delivered initially and this will satisfy 20 percent of the supply for the 203 atteul gas stations in June.

Samsung Total increased its production by 88,000 barrels and it plans to supply more gasoline to atteul stations.

According to the ministry, gasoline prices at atteul gas stations are an average of 38.3 won (3 cents) lower than those offered by surrounding gas stations and 41.8 won lower than the national average.

By Limb Jae-un[jbiz91@joongang.co.kr]