Major Gas Field Discovered
- KNOC says under sea field contains 800,000 tons of LNG

The Korea National Oil Corp. announced on March 3 that it has discovered a gas field near Donghae-1 gas field containing some 800,000 tons of LNG. The new gas field, "Gorae-8 Mining Block," is located about 5 km from the Donghae-1 gas field.
The newly discovered LNG field is estimated to contain 800,000 tons of LNG valued at some $280 million and enough to supply LNG to 340,000 households for 2 years, equivalent to 4.4 percent of total LNG consumed in the country.
KNOC said its crew dug as deep as 2,757 meters under the sea and hit the 37 meters thick gas layer between the point 2,247 meters and 2,284 meters and lab tests showed that the gas layer will be able to yield 38 million cubic feet of natural gas per day thanks to its strong pumping pressure.
The new gas field will be developed in linkage with the Donghae-1 gas field with pipelines and is slated to go into commercial operation from the second half of 2007.
KNOC officials said the new gas field will be less costly to develop because it will benefit from the existing facilities of Donghae-1 gas field. They went on to say that the new gas field showed the possibility of discovering oil and gas fields in its vicinity. The new field is a separate structure from where Donghae-1 gas field was found.
KNOC is slated to conduct detailed tests on the sea areas where large oil and gas fields are expected to be found in July and August this year and draw up a comprehensive report on oil and gas deposits on Korea's continental shelves after conducting tests on additional 2 or 3 sea areas for oil and gas deposits next year.
KNOC discovered a gas deposit from 58 km southeast of Ulsan in 1998 and went into commercial operation starting last year and the company continued to explore for oil and gas in Goare-9 and Gorae-8 mining blocks and discovered a gas deposit on Gorae-8 block, although the work on Gorae-9 failed to turn up anything.
In the meantime, KNOC President Yi Ok-su, in his new year's message, said the company made a big headway last year, despite all the difficulties in the business of petroleum development both at home and overseas. The company firmly set itself up as a leading oil development company in the country, in addition to raising its profile as a professional oil information firm by actively coping with changes in the international oil situation in this age of high oil prices.
KNOC has been able to achieve a record profit last year, following a great achievement in the previous year. The company was able to set itself up as a worldly energy supplier by leading the national effort to become self-sufficient in energy.
The KNOC president, however, said this could be another difficult year for the company due to low growth and high oil prices. He said KNOC would have to consolidate its management in line with its raised position and expectations as a professional oil company.
In the area of the continental shelf oil exploration, Yi said KNOC should make an effort to stabilize the operation of Donghae-1 gas field. He said the company should make an effort to discover more gas and oil in the East Sea and also explore other areas of Korea's continental shelves including the West Sea for oil and gas.
In overseas oil exploration projects, Yi said the company would have to see that Vietnam's 15-1 mining block and Libya's elephant mining block, totaling 8 oil mining blocks around the world, would be closely managed to that they would be able to contribute to expanding the amount of oil KNOC produces. He said they have to remember Korea is an oil producing country and we are proud of this fact when doing work for the company. He also reminded KNOC employees that they should take advantage of strategic ties concluded with four major international oil companies including Rosnet and look for chances to win additional oil concession rights overseas. nw