South Korea to Boost Share of Overseas Oil, Gas Production
February 16, 2012, 10:20 AM ESTBy Sangim Han
(Updates with rare-earth metals in eighth paragraph.)
Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea, which imports almost all of its oil and natural gas needs, plans to increase production at overseas fields to 35 percent of imports by 2020 to bolster energy security.
Output from overseas assets reached 465,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent last year, or 13.7 percent of the country’s oil and gas imports, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in an e-mailed statement today. South Korea aims to produce an additional 170,000 barrels a day this year, the ministry said.
The country, which imports 96 percent of its energy requirements, is competing with economies including China and Japan for global natural resources. South Korea plans to increase its spending on overseas oil and gas development, including asset acquisitions, by 34 percent to $11.8 billion this year, according to the ministry in December.
Korea National Oil Corp., the state-run energy developer, may sign a final contract with the United Arab Emirates by early March to develop three oilfields in the Middle East country, the ministry said today. KNOC, as the company is known, will also continue oil and gas exploration projects in Iraq and in the Ulleung Basin off South Korea’s eastern coast this year.
The state energy developer produced 220,000 barrels a day from its overseas oilfields last year, up from 50,000 barrels in 2007, according to the ministry.
Korea Gas Corp. aims to continue exploring for gas in deepwater wells off the coast of Mozambique, and plans to make a bid for a fourth round of exploration rights in Iraq in May, the ministry said.
South Korea also plans to produce 43 percent of its demand for strategic metals including uranium and iron ore from overseas mines by 2020, compared with 12 percent last year, according to the ministry.
The country may get 1,500 metric tons of rare-earth metals a year through a project in China starting 2012, and 6,000 tons from South Africa from 2015, the ministry said.
--Editors: Ryan Woo, Baldave Singh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sangim Han in Seoul at sihan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.
