"Companies Pulling out of Power Plant Projects to Be Penalized"...Congressional Inspection

SEOUL, KOREA- In a congressional inspection on the administration, the issue of failed investments by state-run energy companies has been under criticism. National Assemblyman Bu Jwa-hyun (Democratic Party) said of the acquisition of Canada's Harvest Energy by the Korea National Oil Corp., "Even though the state-run company is bound by law to acquire overseas resource development assets in exploration, development, and production only, it ignored the law and ended up buying a petroleum refiner."

New Frontier Party congressman Lee Jin-bok attacked the Lee Myung-bak government by saying, "Since Korea has begun overseas resources development in 1977, a total of 57 trillion won has been invested, of which 43 trillion won (75%) was made during the Lee administration. But the investment recovery ratio has declined precipitously to 53 percent in 2012 from 90 percent in 2006 and 63 percent in 2009."

Congressman Park Wan-ju (Democratic Party) revealed that Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Daelim Industrial, and POSCO Engineering & Construction had given up on the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy-initiated projects to build liquefied natural gas-fired power plants. The aggregate capacity planned by the three builders was 3.53 million kilowatts, equivalent to that of four nuclear power plants.

To these criticisms, Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick responded, "I will consider reviewing a proposal to penalize those companies that have participated in power plant building projects and later pulled out."

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