Saudi oil firm board flies to Seoul

The world’s largest petroleum company, Saudi Aramco, will be holding its board meeting in Seoul today.

This is the second time that the Saudi-based global company, which owns a 63.41 percent stake in Korea’s oil refiner S-Oil, is holding a board meeting in Korea. The last time was in 2011.

A group of 11 men including Ali Al-Naimi, board chairman of Saudi Aramco, as well as Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf, Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister, and Majid Abdullah Al-Mneef, Supreme Economic Council (SEC) secretary general, arrived in Seoul on Monday via private jet.

On Tuesday the delegates from the Middle East visited the construction site of S-Oil’s second plant located in Ulsan. The Korean refiner is investing 5 trillion won.

They also visited the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries to discuss business cooperation.

The board members will be leaving Seoul after holding a closed-door meeting today. However, some of the board members will remain in Korea to meet with officials from other Korean refiners.

Saudi Aramco is a state-run petroleum company that produces 3.4 billion barrels of crude annually. The company supplies 34 percent of the crude imported here.

“The fact that the board of Saudi Aramco has chosen Korea to hold their meeting can be interpreted as the Saudis hoping to strengthen cooperation and relations with Korea while reorganizing the weakened position of Saudi Arabia in Asian markets,” said an official in the refinery industry.

BY KIM KI-HWAN [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]