Korea Eyes Ghana's Oil

CHAIRMAN OF the Korea Petroleum Association (KPA), Kang Hyun Oh, last Thursday told journalists in Accra that though his outfit has positive intentions in overseas projects, future negotiation with affiliate partners would tell if an oil refinery could be established here in Ghana.

He said even though China, the US and Britain had already infiltrated the limited Ghanaian oil industry, favourable terms and conditions would pave way for Korea to also participate in upstream exploration.

Mr. Oh was part of a delegation from the Korean Republic to Ghana for a collaborative cooperation seminar with the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Ghana on 'Refinery Management' between the two countries.

The programme is aimed at transmitting and exchanging knowledge about Heavy Oil Upgrading Processes/Plants, Maintenance Management and Storage and Transportation for Managers/Engineers.

It is to enhance both countries' refining and petrochemical and energy related industries development.

The project package, dubbed the Korea-Oil Producing Nations Exchange (KOPEX), is implemented largely by KPA with the participation of nine energy-related private companies. It gets support also from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy.

KOPEX had been in existence since 2006, as a vehicle to maximize inter-dependence and cooperation between Korea and oil producing countries.

“Starting on odyssey toward an oasis of common prosperity, KOPEX emphasizes the spirit of mutual confidence and understanding necessary to translate complementary structure into practical benefits”.

In a presentation, Park Byeong Jae, General Manager of SK Energy in Korea, noted that Heavy Oil Upgrading in oil production increases capacity, meets gasoline product and propylene demand, enhances gasoline quality, giving it low aromatic content with improved crude oil flexibility.

He added that results of a study regarding the relation between profits and upgrading ratio, revealed a company with higher upgrading ratio has more profit than others.

Meanwhile, Steven Larbi, Public Relations Manager at the NPA, told BUSINESS GUIDE that the essence of the seminar was to teach the people how to refine heavy crude.

He said there were about 400 types of crude oil and if some time ago “we were able to refine crude with the sulphur content of 0.05, maybe now we will be able to refine 0.1 crude”, adding that the country would gain more knowledge from the Koreans.

By Nathaniel Y. Yankson