● Silver Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit on ‘Trade Day’ for his contribution to the industry by expanding investment & export
    - Successful operation of new petrochemical complex with excellent leadership in crisis management
    - Contribution to the nation’s industry with 7 trillion Won investment in mega project ‘Shaheen’
● Outstanding leadership in strategy for establishing ESG committee, and expanding into Hydrogen business

S-OIL CEO Hussain A. Al-Qahtani won the Silver Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit at a 58th commemorative ceremony of Trade Day held at COEX on December 6th.

CEO Al-Qahtani was selected as the person of merit for significantly contributing to Korea’s export competitiveness and industrial development through the successful operation of S-OIL’s largest-ever(5 trillion Won) petrochemical complex in Ulsan and planning of a 7 trillion Won follow-up investment in the face of COVID-19 with his outstanding leadership. His long-term strategy for Energy Transition and Carbon Neutrality was also recognized in proactive business activities such as establishing ESG committee and expanding into Hydrogen business.

The Saudi Arabian CEO worked at Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest energy company for 29 years before taking over as the head of S-OIL in June, 2019. He made a huge investment to enhance petrochemical upgrading and export competitiveness based on his outstanding entrepreneurial skills and rich experience in overall petrochemical area including production, engineering, R&D, and project in the face of energy transition.

The CEO of S-OIL delivered stable operation of new petrochemical complex (RUC & ODC) and contributed to a significant performance improvement based on his strategic decision to maximize profits through optimization and efficiency improvement. With this, the refiner could maintain operation rate beyond its capacity as opposed to other regional refiners who cut operation due to COVID-19. Up to 3Q this year, S-OIL achieved 1.7 trillion Won of operating income, highest record in the company’s history. It is expected to export more than $12 billion for whole year. Key export products are fuel products including gasoline and diesel, petrochemical and lube base oil products. They reach to approximately 60 countries around the world.

CEO Al-Qahtani contributed to achieve stable export partner and competitiveness by solidifying partnership with S-OIL’s parent company Saudi Aramco by signing a $3.5 billion (around 24% of 2020 sales revenues) fuel product supply agreement with Aramco’s affiliate (Aramco Trading Singapore PTE) in the first half of this year. On top of this, S-OIL also won 2021 President’s Affiliates Excellence Awards in ‘Operational Excellence’ category which reflects overall evaluation into business operation and activities. Through this, S-OIL represented itself as a successful model of economic cooperation and friendship between an oil producing and consuming country.

CEO Al-Qahtani established ESG Committee chaired by CEO with the slogan ‘contribute to society’s sustainable growth beyond ourselves’. By doing so, the Company aims at reflecting ESG across its business activities and taking a leading role in CSR as well.

Putting safety as core value that should never be compromised, the head of the refiner holds quarterly safety town hall meeting headed by top management. He also designated Chief Safety Officer to solidify safety culture in the workplace. Thanks to these efforts, S-OIL achieved 9 million zero-incident man hours in September 2021, the longest ever in the Company’s history.