4 Korean oil refiners charged with fixing fuel prices before and after start of Iran war

HD Hyundai Oilbank, SK Energy Co., GS Caltex Corp. and S-Oil Corp. are accused of taking advantage of the war to raise prices

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul’s Seocho District. (Yonhap)

Four major Korean oil refiners and top executives are being charged with fixing petroleum prices, and thereby inflating gas prices, despite having adequate crude oil reserves when the US and Israel started bombing Iran on Feb. 28. Prosecutors estimate that the scheme had a total economic impact of 26 trillion won (US$17 billion)On Monday, Na Hui-seok, the prosecutor responsible for fair trade investigations at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, announced charges against four Korean oil refiners — HD Hyundai Oilbank, SK Energy Co., GS Caltex Corp. and S-Oil Corp. — for alleged violations of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act.Two employees at HD Hyundai Oilbank, including the head of the pricing department, will face trial for swapping information with another refiner to set prices, while the head of domestic sales at GS Caltex is charged with deleting data prior to an inspection by the Fair Trade Commission.“We’ve confirmed that the primary cause [of the soaring prices] was collusion between the executives of the pricing departments at HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy on the timing and amount of their price increases. Since their prices were later matched by GS Caltex and S-Oil, prices in the domestic oil refining market rapidly surged,” prosecutors explained.Prosecutors said that HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy’s price-fixing scheme was worth a record-setting 14.2 trillion won (US$9.3 billion) and that when GS Caltex and S-Oil’s copycat price hikes were taken into consideration, the scheme had a total economic impact of 26 trillion won.The prosecutors maintain that the four refiners had no reason to raise prices as they did because they had ample reserves of crude oil when the US and Israel initiated hostilities against Iran.By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]