S. Korea's oil company begins drilling in northern Iraq

SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's state-run oil company has begun drilling
a field in northern Iraq that could hold up to 1.2 billion barrels of crude, the
Seoul government said Thursday.
Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) and its Korean partners plan to conduct drilling
operations through January but expect to have a clear picture of the Bazian
field's commercial probability before the end of the year, according to the
Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
The KNOC-led consortium, which includes SK Energy Co. and Samchully, secured
exploration and development rights to the field in November 2007.
Ministry sources said that if the field's oil reserve estimates are correct, the
total is enough to cover South Korea's crude import needs for roughly 18 months.
Industry experts have predicted the chances of hitting an oil deposit are high.
Canada's Heritage Oil announced in May that it had found evidence of a large
crude reserve in the Mirian West-1 structure, just 3km from Bazian.
The ministry, in charge of the country's industrial and energy policies, also
said that South Korean energy companies have won stakes in five other prospective
oil fields from the autonomous government of Kurdistan.
Combined reserves from the six fields could reach 3.1 billion barrels of crude by
some estimates. Drilling in the Sangaw South field could start in the first half
of next year, the ministry said.
Located south of Bazian, the Sangaw field may hold 320 million barrels, of which
200 million barrels could be claimed by South Korean companies.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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