Samsung E&A, Korea Gas Safety Corp. join forces to target overseas aging-plant maintenance market

Samsung E&A and the Korea Gas Safety Corporation are joining forces to break into the overseas market for aging plant maintenance, with both companies planning to expand their safety diagnostic technologies — built through years of plant project experience — to international sites.

The two companies announced Monday that they signed a memorandum of understanding for strengthening cooperation in plant diagnostic technology and overseas business on Thursday at the Global Engineering Center in Sangil-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul. The agreement deepens a partnership that began last year when the two sides signed a letter of intent on cooperation in the diagnostics field.

The signing ceremony was attended by top executives from both organizations, including Samsung E&A President and CEO Namgung Hong and Korea Gas Safety Corporation President Park Kyung-kook.

Under the MOU, the two companies plan to build a cooperative framework spanning plant safety diagnostics and the full engineering, procurement and construction cycle. Samsung E&A brings extensive domestic and overseas plant project experience along with partnerships with major national oil companies abroad, while the Korea Gas Safety Corporation contributes comprehensive plant diagnostic infrastructure and safety technology.

Specifically, the two companies will collaborate on aging plant condition surveys and project development, third-party technical verification of fitness-for-service and equipment service life, safety inspection support including phased array ultrasonic testing, and the sharing of experiential assets.

"This collaboration will serve as a model case of public-private cooperation in the plant sector, bringing together a global EPC leader and a frontrunner in safety diagnostics," a Samsung E&A official said. "We will actively pursue collaboration and project development to make a full-scale push into the aging plant modernization market."

"This agreement lays the groundwork for applying domestic safety diagnostic technology to overseas plant sites in earnest," a Korea Gas Safety Corporation official said. "As a public institution dedicated to protecting public safety, we will contribute to safe plant operations at overseas sites as well."