South Korea's new oil firm inks deal with Bahrain, Turkey

A new South Korean oil company has signed a deal with two firms in Bahrain and Turkey to import gasoline and diesel in a bid to break a decades-long monopoly held by four oil firms in South Korea, an official said Sunday. The National Oil Corporation (NOC) inked a deal with Bahrain's Riyada Group and Turkey's Rokan Holdings in Bahrain last week on a long-term supply of oil products, said Lee Wang-jae, an official of the NOC. Still, Lee said consultations are under way with the two companies on a specific time frame of import and import volume. The NOC is a private South Korean company that was established in March with the goal of supplying gasoline and diesel to consumers at 20 percent less than four major oil companies that have been holding a virtual monopoly on oil products for decades. The NOC said it was established by a consumer movement "in order to be a deterrent to (the monopoly) and beat the monopoly." It claimed the four big oil companies in South Korea make handsome profits by charging consumers exorbitant prices.