2026-10-12
- Samsung E&A and Korea Gas Safety Corporation (KGS) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on plant diagnostic technology and stronger overseas business cooperation on October 8, 2026, at Samsung E&A’s Global Engineering Center in Gangdong-gu, Seoul; the announcement followed on October 12.
- The four cooperation areas are survey and business development for aging plants, third-party technical verification of fitness-for-service and equipment lifespan, safety inspection support including phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT), and sharing of experience-based assets.
- The planned sequence is opportunity discovery, detailed safety diagnosis, a renovation proposal, and then execution of the renovation project at aging plants operated by major overseas clients.
- Contract value, target countries and target projects have not been disclosed.
Samsung E&A and Korea Gas Safety Corporation have agreed to pursue the overseas market for diagnosing and renovating aging plants together. According to the companies, the two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) titled “Strengthening Cooperation on Plant Diagnostic Technology and Overseas Business” on October 8, 2026, at Samsung E&A’s Global Engineering Center (GEC) in Sangil-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, and announced it on October 12. The agreement is read as an attempt by Samsung E&A, whose business has centered on building new plants, to extend into the safety diagnosis and improvement of facilities that are already operating. It is reported that Samsung E&A brings its plant execution experience at home and abroad and its partnerships with major overseas national oil companies, while KGS brings comprehensive plant diagnostic infrastructure and safety technology. The scope is described as running from safety diagnosis through engineering, procurement and construction (EPC). The MOU sets a framework for cooperation; the contract value and the specific projects it will cover have not been disclosed.
The agreement is formally titled the MOU on plant diagnostic technology and strengthened overseas business cooperation. It is reported that the signing took place on October 8, 2026, at the Samsung E&A Global Engineering Center in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, with Samsung E&A CEO Nam Goong-hong and KGS President Park Kyung-kook among the senior executives attending. The announcement was made on October 12, four days after the signing.
According to reports, the two sides had signed a letter of intent (LOI) on plant diagnostics in November 2025, and the MOU gives that earlier cooperation a more concrete form. One outlet described the MOU as the result of turning the LOI into overseas business that can generate real revenue.
The cooperation covers four areas.
- Aging plant survey and business development: identifying aging plants operated by overseas clients that need repair or modernization and examining whether they can become projects.
- Third-party technical verification of fitness-for-service and equipment lifespan: verifying, from an independent standpoint, whether aging equipment remains fit for continued use and how much service life remains.
- Safety inspection support, including phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT): supporting non-destructive inspection and other safety checks to find defects in equipment.
- Sharing of experience-based assets: sharing diagnostic data, technical know-how and project execution experience.
The sequence of work is described as four steps: opportunity discovery, detailed safety diagnosis, renovation proposal, and renovation project execution. One economic daily reported that Samsung E&A will take the lead in finding aging plants that need repair, while KGS will lead the safety diagnosis and carry through to the renovation proposal. Another outlet said the end goal is to present the client with the best renovation plan after diagnosis and so connect to follow-up construction orders.
A Samsung E&A representative is quoted as saying the cooperation could become an example of public-private cooperation in the plant sector, combining a global EPC company with a leading safety diagnosis organization, and that the company will pursue the aging plant modernization market in earnest through active collaboration and project discovery. KGS is reported to have said the agreement creates a basis for applying its domestic safety diagnosis technology at overseas plant sites and that, as a public institution, it will help ensure the safe operation of plants abroad.
Numbers
The contract value, investment size, target order amount and project period of the arrangement have not been disclosed. The target countries, the specific projects and the detailed schedule for each step have also not been disclosed. The agreement is a cooperation MOU that sets direction and fields of work; it appears that separate contracts would be needed once individual projects are decided, but the contract structure has not been reported.
The quantitative information that can be confirmed is limited to four cooperation areas, four stages of work, and the four days between the signing on October 8 and the announcement on October 12. One economic daily reported that repair business is smaller in scale than Samsung E&A’s core EPC business, but it gave no figures for the comparison. The same outlet reported expectations that the repair and improvement of aging facilities at overseas clients could lay a foundation for new EPC orders, and an assessment that showcasing KGS’s safety technology abroad could help in competitive bidding.
For separate context, Samsung E&A announced on September 11, 2026, that it had won the SAN-7 project, ordered by SABIC Agri-Nutrients, the fertilizer subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s state petrochemical company SABIC, under an EPC contract worth about US$3.5 billion (about 4.7 trillion won). That is a new-build project separate from this MOU, and any direct link between the two has not been disclosed.
Timeline
- November 2025: Samsung E&A and KGS are reported to have signed a letter of intent (LOI) on plant diagnostics. The exact date has not been disclosed.
- October 8, 2026: The two organizations signed the MOU on plant diagnostic technology and overseas business cooperation at the Samsung E&A Global Engineering Center in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.
- October 12, 2026: The companies announced the MOU, and Korean media reported it.
Note
- Fitness-for-Service: a concept for evaluating whether equipment with defects or degradation can continue to operate safely. In this agreement it is listed together with equipment lifespan as a subject of third-party technical verification.
- Brownfield / Revamp: terms for renovation and improvement projects on facilities that are already operating, as distinct from projects built at a new site.