Will business tycoons get to meet Aramco chair at S-Oil's Ulsan plant?

• Published date: 07 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

All eyes are on whether the heads of major Korean conglomerates will be able to meet Aramco Chairman and Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony for S-Oil's 9 trillion won ($6.7 billion) "Shaheen" project in southern Korea.

Shaheen, which means falcon in Arabic, involves the construction of Korea's largest petrochemical plant in Ulsan by 2026.

The Aramco-owned oil refiner said Tuesday that construction will start on March 9 after the project was approved by its board of directors last November, when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, one of the major shareholders of Aramco, visited Korea. The plant is Aramco's largest investment in Korea.

The groundbreaking ceremony was initially planned for Monday, but was delayed for three days due to an undisclosed reason.

Although S-Oil declined to confirm the list of participants in the ceremony, Aramco's chairman and board members are expected to visit Ulsan, along with Korean politicians and government officials. Aramco will also reportedly hold its board meeting in Korea for the first time since 2015.

The Aramco chairman, who supervises Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, is known to be a close aide of the Saudi crown prince. He visited Korea last May to attend President Yoon Suk Yeol's inauguration ceremony.

In January, he also met with Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, who visited Saudi Arabia to boost cooperation between the Middle Eastern country and Korean builders for Neom, a $500 billion project aimed at developing eco-friendly and smart...