Ahmed Subaey, outgoing chief executive of S-Oil Corp., said the Korean government and the private sector should work together to stabilize oil prices.

“Unlike gold or copper, oil is not just a commercial commodity. Crude oil has several dimensions -- environmental, geopolitical and social,” Subaey told reporters on Monday, three days after his term ended as the refiner’s CEO.

“Oil prices are too high now and they are driven not by supply and demand, but by geopolitical fears. If we can bring the government and the private sector to work together, we will be able to find a proper solution to the high oil prices.”

Subaey picked the completion of the world’s largest paraxylene production facility in Ulsan, expansion into the renewable energy business and getting the company’s first headquarters building in its 35-year history among S-Oil’s biggest accomplishments during his four years in Korea.

The nation’s third largest oil refiner pushed up its annual production capacity to 1.7 million tons of paraxylene and 560,000 tons of benzene by completing a 1.3 trillion won expansion project last year.

In a bid to enter the renewable energy business, S-Oil acquired a 33.4-percent stake in Hankook Silicon Co., a manufacturer of poly-silicon which is used in producing photovoltaic cells.

“But the biggest accomplishment I think was what we created within the company -- an energy that bonded us together and changed the way we communicate with each other,” Subaey said.

“The most difficult thing in the world is to change the culture of a company. It takes a great deal of leadership because you can’t clean the stairs from the bottom up.”

Subaey said he will never forget the honor of winning a top industrial award in December last year.

He became the second foreigner ever to be granted the Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit for S-Oil’s steady exports of petrochemicals and large-scale investments.

Subaey will return to Saudi Arabia to take charge of Saudi Aramco’s major transformation planned by CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih. Saudi Aramco is the biggest shareholder of S-Oil.

Saudi Aramco’s former global refining coordinator Nasser Al-Mahasher took over as S-Oil’s CEO last Friday.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)