S-Oil names new CEO

South Korean oil refiner S-Oil, wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s state-run Aramco, said Tuesday it has appointed Anwar A. Al-Hejazi as the company’s new CEO.

“Al-Hejazi’s expertise in the global energy industry as an officer of Aramco will contribute to boosting S-Oil’s business and growth in global markets,” S-Oil’s board of directors said in a statement about the appointment during a shareholders meeting.

S-Oil said Al-Hejazi has shown leadership in diverse business areas -- from facility operation to project planning and management to marketing.

“We believe he is the right person to show outstanding performance, especially when the company is pushing for the energy transition through the Shaheen Project, aimed at expanding petrochemical production, diversifying the business portfolio and carrying out a low-carbon hydrogen initiative and the 2050 Net Zero roadmap,” the board added.

The $7 billion Shaheen project is the largest investment made by Aramco in Korea, with the aim of building a large-scale petrochemical plant in the nation’s southern industrial city of Ulsan.

During his 27 years of work in Aramco, Al-Hejazi served as president of Aramco Asia, leading joint investments with South Korean, Chinese and Japanese companies in 2018. In particular, he played a critical role in creating new business opportunities in carbon ammonia and hydrogen with 10 major companies in Korea and Japan, S-Oil said.