State Oil Company Aims at Achieving 'Great KNOC 3020'

Korea National Oil Corp. going all out to finish the grand operational strategy to uplift and expand its oil exploration projects

With 47 KNOC unit heads from 17 overseas units in 14 countries attending, the two-day meeting led by President Kang Young-won took up issues faced by each unit and issues facing the company as a whole that require immediate attention, especially those related to pushing the "Great KNOC 3020," such as mid- to long-term strategies and synergy among KNOC-invested firms abroad.
The Great KNOC 3020 was announced in 2008 in line with the government policy to make KNOC greater. Under the strategy, KNOC's daily crude oil production would reach 300,000 barrels per day and its untapped oil reserves would reach 2 billion barrels in 2012.
President Kang called on the participants of the meeting to be armed with a challenging spirit so that the company would be able to cope with the changing situations in the global oil exploration business. "If every overseas unit does its best, KNOC will be able to expand its self-sufficiency in oil exploration by 20 percent this year, as called for in the Great KNOC 3020," Kang said.
Kang said, "We ought to tighten our belts and do our best to achieve objectives prescribed in the long-term vision of the company for this year." The CEO called for a tight plan for the free cash flow rolling plan with various back up measures for diversifying asset liquidity, a very important factor for creating funds for large investments.
Kang also said in his New Year address that the settling down of a corporate culture befitting KNOC's operational growth is also an important factor, adding that he hopes this year would be the year for KNOC to take its place as a global oil development firm as a base for organic growth backed up by various successes in management and operational reform accomplished thus far. "We have to do our best to boost the company's corporate value by increasing the rate of success in our test drillings in various mining blocks scattered around the world by training our crews engaged in the projects, which will upgrade the level of our oil drilling," Kang said.
2012 is the year for the accomplishment of the Great KNOC 3020 and the initial year for the post-period of the plan. "We ought to create great performance results by maintaining a consensus so that we may be called a top global organization," he said.
Kang recalled that the company had a very good year last year in all areas of endeavor, in particular the upgrading of its self-sufficiency in oil exploration to build a base as a global oil firm. The company took over the Anaconda shale oil field in the United States to enter the non-traditional oil exploration business. The company also participated in an oil exploration project in the UAE, securing a bridgehead for its entry into the Middle East.
He said the company was able to build a base for technology exchange between the home office and overseas units as well as strengthening both personnel management and education sectors aiming at the company's organic growth.
KNOC said its Ada oil field in Kazakhstan, which has been explored since 2009, was found to contain 11 million barrels of crude oil recently. The new discovery brought the crude oil untapped in the mining districts in the No. 5 Basenkol to 41 million barrels, boosting the economic feasibility of the mining district with the discovery of new crude oil reserves.
The company expects to find from 17 million to 42 million more barrels of oil as it continues to conduct test drilling at other sites in the same mining district, in addition to the 11 million barrels found already. nw

President Kang Young-won of Korean National Oil Corp.