SK Energy Succeeds in Producing Crude Oil for 2nd time in Brazil

‘The mining block could churn out 15,000 barrels of crude oil daily’

SK Energy has succeeded in an experiment to drill crude oil from Brazil’s mining block BM-C-30. SK Energy on April 7 announced the successful trial prospecting of 7,500 barrels of crude oil and 4 million cubic feet of gas from the Wahoo field on the BM-C-30 mining block, an offshore mining area located at the Campos Basin of Brazil. Also joining SK Energy which has a 20 percent stake in the exploration of the mining block are U.S. petroleum developer Anadarko Petroleum Co. with a 30 percent stake, Devon Energy of the United States with a 25 percent stake and India’s IVW with a 25 percent stake.
The Wahoo field is a crude oil deposit in the rock salt understructure of the BM-C-30 mining block. Two trial drillings, conducted in October 2008 and last November, confirmed the existence of crude oil reserves.
The successful trial exploration of crude oil comes from the first trial drilling site.
An SK Energy official said the crude oil from the latest trial operation is scaled at API 31 degree, an equivalent of good-quality crude oil, and when the drilled well is in full operation, it could produce up to 15,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
SK Energy said another trial exploration will be conducted on the second trial drilling site, confirmed to have crude oil deposits last November. He said four years of exploration efforts starting in 2004 in the mining block paid off, and Anadarko, the operator of the mining block, estimates the crude oil deposits at 300 million barrels. It is the second time that SK Energy has succeeded in the trial exploration of crude oil in Brazil. SK Energy has a 40 percent stake in the BM-C-8 mining block, which is churning out about 7,000 barrels of crude oil per day since July 2007.
SK Energy is also participating in another project to develop the BM-C-32 mining block in which a trial drilling confirmed crude oil deposits last December.
SK Energy Selected as Electric Car Battery Provider to Hyundai Motor
SK Energy said it is participating in the government’s task project to produce electric cars with Hyundai Motor as a lithium-ion battery provider.
The task project, initiated by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, calls for the Full Speed Electric Vehicle (FSEV), to be commercialized for the first time in Korea, fitted with the SK Energy-produced lithium-ion battery, an SK Energy official said. SK Energy hopes it will participate in Hyundai Motor’s other diverse projects to produce electric cars, he said.
SK Energy became the battery provider for hybrid commercial vehicles produced by Mitsubishi Fuso, a subsidiary of Daimler AG last October. Now that SK Energy has been selected as an electric car battery provider of the project headed by Hyundai Motor, SK Energy has been not only recognized for the quality and technological prowess of electric car battery products in Korea and abroad, but also it will likely gain the momentum to make a foray into the global car battery market, SK Energy officials said.
SK Energy’s provision of a high-capacity, high-performance battery for the FSEV that will emit no carbon dioxide and be capable of running at high speeds, unlike the ones of Hyundai Motor’s hybrid car projects, has proven the company’s higher technological strength, they said. SK Energy is striving to expand its battery business horizons by participating in projects to produce diverse electric vehicles, including hybrid cars, electric cars and Neighborhood Electric Vehicles.
Korea Re-exports Value-Added Petroleum Products to Crude Oil Exporters
Korea, a nation with no crude oil reserves, re-exported approximately 38 million barrels of gasoline, light oil, aircraft oil and other petroleum products to some crude oil producers, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, during 2009, a 22 percent surge from 2008.
The value of the petroleum products exported to crude oil producers by SK Energy during last year was $2.5 billion (some 2.9 trillion won). The re-exported products are value-added ones produced by the world’s top-rated process technology after refining the crude oil the company has imported.
The exports to crude oil exporters accounted for about 25 percent of a total of 150 million barrels of petroleum exports SK Energy shipped to foreign countries.
An SK Energy official said Korea, a nation with a scarcity of resources, imports 100 percent of its crude oil needs, and the nation re-exports value-added petroleum products thanks to state-of-the-art process technology and quality competitiveness, a successful example of Korea’s employment of advanced technology. He said SK Energy is striving to continue to make value-added petroleum products one of the nation’s top three mainstay exports. nw

A scene of SK Energy’s drilling crude oil from Brazil’s mining block BM-C-8. SK Energy has recently succeeded in test-drilling crude oil for the second time in Brazil.