President Kim Dong-sub of the Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) said on Oct. 17, “We’ve been implementing the Gwanggaeto Project, established as a mid- to long-term project to explore continental shelves in Korea. The project will be expanded to explore the West and South Sea to accelerate efforts to secure maritime sovereignty and achieve carbon neutrality goals.”
KNOC President Kim made the remarks at a parliamentary audit of 12 public entities, including KNOC, by the National Assembly Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startup Committee at KNOC headquarters in Ulsan.
The company’s overseas resource exploration and development will secure reserves, and focus on strategic regions with higher profitability and easy importation, in the case of an emergency, to achieve resource security and financial outcomes, President Kim said.
President Kim said, “KNOC will faithfully carry out the government’s plan to stockpile petroleum reserves while not only achieving strategic storage goals, but also securing economic benefits by implementing new joint storage projects with state-run oil companies of oil producers.
The ‘energy hub project’ is designed to build a multi-layer petroleum security structure by expanding petroleum traffic volumes with the region.”
“KNOC will target hydrogen and ammonia as new low-carbon growth engines and materialize floating off-shore wind power projects, and we will spearhead into efforts to develop initial natural hydrogen technologies of mining natural hydrogen deposited underground by utilizing its underground resources development technologies,” President Kim said.
The Donghae deep-sea gas field project involves exploring oil and gas reserves, presumed to stand at approximately 14 billion barrels in the deep-sea area near Yeongil Bay, Pohang.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) said an initial drilling is to be done in December, but opposition parties have raised doubts over the implementation process and the likelihood of success.
They claim that the possibility of finding gas and oil is low, and the implementation process unclear.
Lawmakers made inquiries at a parliamentary interpellation of the MOTIE held on Oct. 7.
Rep. Kim Sung-hwan of the Democratic Party of Korea claimed that a combined 576.1 billion won was set aside for five years for the budget of the Donghae gas field project, and public projects costing over 200 billion won are required to undergo a preliminary feasibility study.
MOTIE Minister Ahn Duk-geun replied that the first drilling slated for December is a separate project, and its cost, standing at less than 100 billion won, is not subject to a preliminary feasibility study.
An opposition lawmaker insisted that an exploratory analysis of the Donghae deep-sea gas field by SLB, the world’s No. 1 oil exploration company, was even less likely to find gas reserves.
In return, MOTIE Minister Ahn said SLB also issued an optimistic prediction, with more reserves than expected.
In a related development, Jung Hyun-young, head of the Domestic Business Development Department at KNOC said, “Finding new oil reserves is expected to bring about profit estimated at about 11 trillion won, and we’re expanding the Gwanggaeto Project to the West and South Sea, on top of the deep-sea Donghae Gas Field.”
He revealed the plans at a special session on the exploration of the Donghae Ullung Basin during the 2024 International Geological Congress held on Aug. 28 at BEXCO in Busan.
The Gwanggaeto Project, named after King Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo, is a mid- to long-term oil exploration and development project.
KNOC has so far carried out exploration of coastal areas, but the state-run oil company has expanded its scope to deep-sea areas of more than 1,000 meters in depth.
Of late, KNOC has been looking for finding oil reserves off the West Sea and the South Sea, including Jeju.
Jung said geological information has been secured through coastal and deep-sea exploration and the Gwanggaeto Project has enabled the acquisition of large amounts of data via 3D system for marine seismic exploration.
The project has led to finding promising reserves blocks in Donghae’s deep-sea area, and KNOC will conduct this year’s first drilling, he said.
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