S Korea, China, Japan To Meet Sep On Joint Crude Oil Buy
Thursday January 27, 11:05 AM
SEOUL (Dow Jones)--Oil companies from South Korea, China and Japan will meet in September in Seoul to discuss efforts to strengthen their collective bargaining power when purchasing crude oil, the Federation of Korean Industries said.
Working-level officials from the companies are meeting Thursday to decide on the agenda for the upcoming meeting in Seoul, the FKI said in a statement.
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South Korea will be represented by SK Corp. (003600.SE), LG-Caltex Oil Corp., S-Oil Corp. (010950.SE), Hyundai Oilbank Corp. (HOR.YY) and Inchon Oil Refinery.
Sinopec, CNPC, CNOOC (CEO) and Sinochem are scheduled to attend the meeting representing China, while Nippon Oil Corp. (5001.TO), Showa Shell Sekiyu (5002.TO) and Nippon Mining Holdings (5016.TO), among others, will represent Japan, the FKI said.
Topics for discussion will include concerted efforts to improve bargaining power, joint use of facilities to store oil, and establishing a new oil exchange in northeast Asia.
"The oil exchange in Singapore doesn't effectively reflect market conditions in east Asia," the FKI said.
Talks between South Korea and China on the joint use of crude oil in reserves have already progressed quite a bit, the FKI said without further elaboration on details.
Early December, oil companies from South Korea and China met in Beijing to discuss cooperating on joint purchases and transportation as well as stockpiling of crude oil amid volatile global oil prices.
Korea is the world's fourth-largest crude oil importer, and is estimated to have bought 826.87 million barrels of crude in 2004. Approximately 78% of this came from the Middle East.
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