South Korea's S-Oil hikes bunker sales after launch of Onsan terminal
South Korean refiner S-Oil has increased its bonded bunker fuel sales by 20,000 mt/month after it started using new storage tanks at Onsan in November, a company source said Friday, Platts reports.
Its bunker sales were 150,000-160,000 mt/month before.
The new tanks are owned and operated by Onsan Tank Terminal, a consortium of Japanese and South Korean companies. The storage tanks with a total capacity of 100,000 kl began operating in November.
S-Oil has been using 6,000-10,000 kl of the tanks' storage capacity. The main shareholders of Onsan Tank Terminal are Japanese oil trader Nakagawa Bussan (36.64%), South Korean city gas supplier Yesco (24%) and South Korean LPG supplier E1 (24%).
S-Oil operates a 669,000 b/d refinery at Onsan.
South Korea sells about 700,000 mt/month of bunker fuel with Busan, in the southeast, being the largest bunkering port. Bonded bunker fuel is exempt from tax and can be sold only to ships plying international routes.
