Offshore staff
(Asia-Pacific) - Korean National Oil Corp. (KNOC) has discovered an economically viable natural gas deposit in the East Sea.
The Donghae 6-1 sector deposit is estimated to hold 10 bcf of gas, or 220,000 tons, of high-quality LNG.
The drilling site is 75 km southeast of Ulsan and was found about 1,700 m below the seabed.
It is the third such deposit found on the South Korean continental shelf since 1998.
The state-run oil company says the new find was much smaller than the 230 bcf of gas in the Donghae 1 field to the southeast - that field is now in production - but was close enough to the larger field for them to be developed together, by building a pipeline between the wells, for example.
The Donghae 1 field produces 50 MMcf/d of gas and 1,200 b/d of crude oil.
Detailed analysis of the field will start in March.
The new field could reduce the need for imported gas in Korea by about $100 million per year, the company estimates.
02/22/06
