South Korea’s leading oil refinery and gas station operator SK Energy said Sunday it had completed a successful trial run of its desulfurization facility, ready for commercial production.

Since 2018, SK Energy has spent 1 trillion won ($820 million) on building the vacuum residue desulfurization facility with a capacity of 40,000 barrels of low-sulfur fuel oil a day to prepare for stringent regulations on ship fuel.

The VRDS facility is expected to allow SK Energy to produce more low-sulfur petroleum products as the International Maritime Organization limited the sulfur cap of marine fuel to 0.5 percent from the previous 3.5 percent, intent to promote cleaner ship fuel starting this year.

The new facility is expected to help the company to weather out the global demand shock on the petrochemical industry upon the COVID-19 outbreak, according to industry sources.

During the trial run, no leaks were found in the facility’s pipelines, which are 24,000 kilometers long with 24,000 seams, making it ready for production, the company said.

“The successful trial run comes more meaningful as it was done 100 percent by independent technology when foreign experts weren’t available due to the coronavirus epidemic,” the company said.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)