Saudi Aramco will hold a board meeting in South Korea next month

SEOUL, 24 Feb. (Yonhap) — Saudi Arabian Oil Company, one of the world’s largest crude oil exporters, will hold a board meeting in Seoul next month. Its chairman is also expected to attend the annual meeting, industry sources said on Friday.

It is the third time the Saudi oil giant, also known as Saudi Aramco, will hold its annual board meeting in South Korea, the world’s fifth-largest crude importer, after the first in 2011 and the second in 2015.

Along with board members, its chairman Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan is expected to travel to South Korea to attend the event scheduled for early next month, the sources said.

But the detailed list of participants is not yet determined, they added.

Al-Rumayyan, who also heads the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, had traveled to Seoul in May last year to attend the inauguration ceremony of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Saudi Aramco is the largest shareholder in S-Oil, South Korea’s third-largest oil refiner, with a 63.4% stake.

During the visit of board members, S-Oil will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a large-scale petrochemical plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan on March 6 to mark the beginning of the Shaheen project.

The $7 billion project was announced late last year when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited South Korea. The project is expected to be completed by 2026.