SEOUL, Feb 2 (Reuters) - South Korea's S-Oil , whose main shareholder is Saudi Aramco, forecast on Friday that 2024 refining margins will maintain at an above-average level helped by steady demand growth and low inventories.

Over the October-December period, the refiner said it operated the crude distillation units (CDUs) at its 669,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in the southeastern city of Ulsan at 94% of capacity, compared with 90.4% in full-year 2023.

S-Oil plans to shut its No. 1 crude distillation unit sometime this year for maintenance, the company said in an earnings presentation, without elaborating on timing. (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)