Kim Jung Rae
,CEO,Korea National Oil Company
KNOC has a wide range of activities at home on Korean land as well as abroad. The company imports and exports crude oil and petroleum products, keeping the country’s energy sector alive. Formerly known as Korea Petroleum Development Corp, KNOC was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Ulsan, South Korea. In the Middle East, KNOC concluded a production sharing contract in Block 70 in Yemen in 2005 through direct negotiations with the Yemeni government. The company also acquired a 15% interest in Hawler of Kurdistan in 2008, while the rest went to Oryx Petroleum and the Kurdistan Regional Government. In the UAE, it has a stake in two onshore blocks and one offshore block. Kim Jung Rae has been the CEO and president of KNOC for just over a year now. He joined the company after having served a number of leadership roles in Hyundai Group where he initially started his career in 1976. When Kim was appointed to his current role, he said that he will work together with the employees to overcome the downturn and make every effort to make the company take off once again.