Korea’s Trade, Industry and Energy Vice Minister Namho Choe attended the Korea Energy Terminal (KET) completion ceremony today in Ulsan with the attendance of executive leaders and employees from the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), SK Gas, Ulsan Metropolitan City, and Ulsan Port Authority (UPA), among other project contributors.
The completion of KET is significant in three main aspects. First, KET is a key project under Korea’s Northeast Asia Energy Hub Project and the second domestic energy hub to be completed following the Oilhub Korea Yeosu Co. (OKYC) completed in 2013. Based on Korea’s favorable geopolitical location and port environment, OKYC is currently in successful operation, leading to anticipation of Ulsan KET’s smooth operation as well.
Second, KET is Korea’s first mixed terminal for storing both petroleum and gas. In accordance with the recent changes in the global energy paradigm, the design for KET has evolved from the initial petroleum-centered model to a mixed terminal capable of dealing with other sources like natural gas. An innovative model built to address changing needs, KET has the potential and capacity to function as a terminal for storing various clean energy sources such as hydrogen and ammonia, and for carbon capture and storage (CCS) going forward.
Third, KET is a culmination of public-private cooperation. The government has been concentrating effort on improving the institutional framework to expand the terminal’s scope of use by newly installing the international petroleum trading business under the Petroleum Business Act and permitting the blending of domestic oil products within the general bonded area. KNOC has contributed to designing and building a safe terminal facility based on its experiences in large-scale oil stockpile facility projects. In the private sector, SK Gas responded swiftly to Ulsan’s private sector demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) by proposing the establishment of the city’s first LNG terminal, thereby dramatically boosting KET’s commercial value.
With companies around the world showing heated interest in KET, its 4.4 million barrels of storage space for oil and gas are fully rented out at the moment. Oil storage space of 1.7 million barrels is to be used for trading of overseas companies’ petroleum products, while 2.7 million barrels—equivalent to 200,000 metric tons—of gas storage are to be provided to domestic companies for new power generation and industrial fuel purposes.
Vice Minister Choe stated that KET is an example of best practice of synergy between values of public benefit and private sector creativity. During the completion ceremony, he presented government awards to KNOC, SK Gas, and UPA for their contribution to KET completion.