SK E&S considers selling real estate for clean energy
Woo-Sub Kim
5 HOURS AGO
SK E&S Co., the natural gas business unit of South Korea’s SK Group, is mulling selling its real estate asset in Seoul, which is expected to fetch up to 500 billion won ($376 million), to give a boost to its new renewable energy business, especially hydrogen.
According to sources in the Korean energy industry, SK E&S is reviewing an option to cash in on a building and land occupied by its fully-owned city gas subsidiary Ko-won Energy Service in the affluent Gangnam area.
It is said to be in talks with one of Korea’s major medical centers to sell off the real estate asset estimated worth between 400 billion and 500 billion won.
SK E&S is seeking to unload the building and land to raise the money needed to expand its new growth engine in the clean energy sector, such as hydrogen, said industry observers.
TO EXPAND A CLEAN ENERG PORTFOLIO
The company is Korea’s top city gas supplier with multiple related subsidiaries. It is also the country’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, bringing 5 million tons a year of LNG out of the 9 million tons that the country imports annually.
It has been actively seeking to add new renewable energy sources to its portfolio with a focus on blue hydrogen, solar energy and wind power farms.
It has been operating development projects in the fields with the other shareholders – Australia’s oil and gas company Santos Corp. and ConocoPhillips Corp., a US crude oil producer.
Blue hydrogen is decarbonized hydrogen, which is hydrogen manufactured by natural gas reforming coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS).
With its blue hydrogen project, the company is projected to join a South Korean government bid for a clean hydrogen power project, industry observers said.