KNOC Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Oil company declares Great KNOC 3020 Vision to be an oil major by 2012

The Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) celebrated its 30th anniversary March 2 by declaring its "Great KNOC 3020" vision at a ceremony at its head office in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province.
At the ceremony, which took place a day before the official anniversary date of March 3, President Kang Young-won said KNOC should grow to be a state-run oil company loved by the people for its services, making a contribution to the nation's development and prosperity.
Under the new vision, the company will become a world oil major by 2012, producing 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily from its overseas oil fields either wholly-owned or as a stakeholder and securing oil and gas fields with oil and gas reserves totaling 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Kang said all officers and staff should make the anniversary an occasion for a historic jumping-off point for the company. The company's officers and staff will spare no efforts in making the company an oil enterprise loved by the people of the country and, in order to be so, they will embrace four core values including a challenging and professional spirit, consideration and contributions for the public good in a bid to secure stable energy sources for an earlier realization of the company's "Great KNOC 3020" vision. KNOC produces 77,000 barrels of oil daily with oil and gas reserves of 630 million barrels of oil equivalent, ranking 95th in the world oil industry.
The national oil company may consider M&As with other oil companies and modernize its oil exploration operations around the world to improve the success rate of its overseas oil exploration ventures.
The new vision also included three major target policies: Spurring its efforts in the exploration of oil to increase the supply of oil; leading the national petroleum business by strengthening its capacity; and securing new growth engines by strengthening its efforts in that direction. In order to expand the supply of oil by the company, a steady move will be taken to secure M&As, make approaches to major oil fields in the world and make efforts toward domestic drilling of oil blocks both on land and offshore to increase production.
The company plans to select an advisory firm to support its M&As with foreign oil companies through producing oil wells or buying oil blocks and to decide on methods to secure funds and strategies for pursuing M&As.
The company will try to boost its marketing of oil produced at its overseas oil fields while strengthening its efforts to make Korea an oil hub of Northeast Asia by securing the core technologies needed for the exploration of oil and new businesses including those related to the development of energy to replace oil.
Dignitaries present at the ceremony included Rep. Jung Jang-seon, chairman of the Knowledge Economy Committee of the National Assembly, Rep. Kim Yong-koo and Second Vice Minister Kim Young-hak of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, among others. In the meantime, KNOC held a strategy meeting of overseas office heads at its head office in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, led by President Kang Young-won. A total of 41 management executives of the head office, heads of overseas offices and related officials attended the two-day large-scale relay strategy meeting.
President Kang, in his opening speech of the meeting, said everyone with the company should make an effort to boost effective management this year to change crises into opportunities by overcoming various adverse matters that lay ahead such as high foreign exchange rates, high interest rates and oil prices that tend to change from day to day with creative ideas and daring challenges to create realistic results. He emphasized that the Great KNOC 3020 vision is a vital mission for the company to grow to become a global oil major and the company will go all out to secure oil fields ready to be tapped. At the event, executives analyzed the progress of mid- to long-term overseas petroleum development strategy targets, established plans to achieve 2009 business targets for each department and measures that will enable the entire company to share the strategic targets outlined in the Great KNOC 2009 as well as management policies and means to reform overseas offices. They announced the results at the end of the meeting.
KNOC will take advantage of the current skid in oil prices around the world and redouble its efforts to secure targeted oil field reserves to help overcome the national economic crisis. In order to help expedite its efforts, the meeting heard from experts in various fields including energy strategy, IT and taxation following free discussions on major issues included in its vision. nw

KNOC's managers stationed overseas, led by President Kang Young-won, raise their arms to swear to work hard to achieve their goals following a strategy meeting on March 2 at KNOC head office in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province.