S-Oil has installed its second single point mooring unit in Ulsan, a loading buoy anchored offshore that allows tankers to offload their crude oil via pipeline to the refineries, the company said Tuesday.

According to the South Korean refinery, the SPM unit, the second one at the company’s Ulsan plant, began its operation Tuesday.

Installed in the waters off Ulsan New Port, the SPM unit is equipped with mooring equipment that can hold fast tankers and is connected with 44-inch diameter pipelines, 3.7 kilometers underwater and 3 kilometers above ground. S-Oil invested 172 billion won ($151.7 million) over the course of two years and seven months to complete the new SPM unit.

“Since the establishment of the Ulsan plant in 1980, S-Oil has been using a single SPM unit. The recent expansion of the plant required another SPM unit,” a company official said.

Operating an additional SPM unit is expected to allow S-Oil to respond more flexibly to weather conditions and secure a steady supply of oil in cases of emergency. Also, S-Oil will be able to cut costs it had previously spent for making tankers wait at sea when it operated a single SPM unit, according to the company.

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