S-Oil considering dedicated SAF plant in South Korea

Seoul-headquartered refining and petroleum company S-Oil said that it currently reviewing construction of a dedicated sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant in South Korea, company’s first quarter earning filings showed.

The company said that it is already co-processing bio feedstocks and waste oils to produce renewable fuels. Earlier in January, the company announced that it has begun processing bio-based feedstocks, including used cooking oil and the byproducts of the palm oil, to produce SAF, renewable diesel and bio-naphtha.

S-Oil also said that during the first quarter of 2024, it has signed partnership MoUs with multiple firms to secure bio feedstock. It is also planning to expand production capacity for renewable fuels in the coming quarters with long-term plans to increase production to 150,000 tonnes per annum by 2030.

The announcement came after S-Oil received approval for the demonstration of the co-processing of waste plastic-based pyrolysis oil in July and bio-based feedstocks in December last year under the government’s regulatory sandbox program.

In April, the company also announced that it received the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), the ISCC EU and the ISCC PLUS approvals to produce SAF in South Korea.

The company said that with the acquisition of international certification to produce SAF that meets CORSIA requirements for the first time in Korea, it can contribute substantially to protecting land through the use of bio-based raw materials and conserving biodiversity, not to mention cutting greenhouse gas emissions aviation.

Company’s first quarter earnings showed it earned a revenue of KRW9,308bn ($6.8bn), with an operating income of KRW454.1bn ($332m) and net income of KRW166.2bn ($121m).