South Korea's Hyundai Oilbank to export gasoline, diesel to the US

South Korea's smallest oil refiner Hyundai Oilbank will export more than 3.6 million barrels of gasoline and diesel to the US next year, extending a term contract with US petroleum product distributer, Sunoco, the company said Nov. 14.

The refiner said that under the contract, it cannot provide a breakdown of the export volume for gasoline and diesel as well as financial details such as prices.

Hyundai Oilbank exported 3.6 million barrels of refined oil products to Hawaii this year under a contract with Sunoco, but the renewed contract for next year marks the first shipment to the US mainland.

The refiner started to export gasoline and diesel to Hawaii in June 2021 and signed its first term contract with Sunoco for export of 3.6 million barrels for 2022, which was extended through 2023.

"We will seek various business opportunities on the basis of the partnership with Sunoco, beyond oil products exports to the US mainland," the company said in a statement.

Hyundai Oilbank exported half of its oil products. It produced 105.02 million barrels of refined oil products over January-September this year, down 7.3% from 113.26 million barrels produced in the same period last year, according to a company official.

The refiner lowered its crude run rate to average 74% for the first nine months of this year, down from 79.8% from a year earlier. The company indicated it would raise its crude throughput next year by forecasting stronger cracking margins.

"Gasoline cracks are expected to turn strong in the first half of next year driven by stockpiling demand, while diesel and kerosene cracks are forecast to stay strong on the back of reduced Russian supply and recovering heating fuel demand," the company official said.

Hyundai Oilbank runs two crude distillation units with a combined capacity of 520,000 b/d and a 170,000 b/d condensate splitter in the Daesan complex on the west coast of the country.

Last year, Hyundai Oilbank started commercial production at its newly-built Heavy feed Petrochemical Complex which can produce 850,000 mt/year of polyethylene and 500,00 mt/year of polypropylene by using cheap heavy fuel oil as a feedstock.

Hyundai Oilbank is 73.85% owned by Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings that runs South Korea's top shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries, while Saudi Arabia's Aramco Overseas Company controls a 17% stake as the second biggest shareholder.