South Korean prosecutors indict four refiners oil price collusion
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South Korean prosecutors charged four major domestic oil refiners on Monday with violating fair trade laws, alleging they colluded to raise domestic fuel prices in the wake of conflict in the Middle East.
HD Hyundai Oilbank, SK Energy, GS Caltex and S-Oil were the four companies that violated the country’s fair trade law. based on To Yonhap News Agency.
According to Yonha’s news, citing prosecutors, HD Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy made a secret agreement on the sale of oil worth 14.2 trillion won ($9.2 billion). The total anti-competitive impact of the factoring by GS Caltex and S-Oil, which allegedly imitated these prices, was approximately 26 trillion won, the report said.
Prosecutors said the investigation was launched after domestic oil prices rose sharply in the wake of the US-Iran conflict and found collusion by pricing executives at the two firms on the timing and scale of the increases was a key factor.
The prosecutor’s office said the collusion was not an independent event but a long-standing, systemic practice that emerged during a period of global crisis.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in March warned In X, it was promised that oil refineries and companies involved in price fixing would be held accountable and that all legal action would be taken against unethical business practices.
The shares of oil refineries and their owners were again high. S-Oil gained 6.08%, SK Innovation, the parent company of SK Energy, gained 1.58%, HD Hyundai gained 1.21%, and GS Holdings, which jointly controls refiner GS Caltex with Chevron through its energy unit, gained 6.99%.
S-Oil declined to comment. Hyundai Oilbank, SK Energy and GS Caltex could not immediately be reached for comment.
