Gas Layer Find Could Power 340,000 Homes for Two Years

On the heels of the discovery of gas at the Donghae-One site, another significant layer of gas has been found in the Gorae-Eight area off the coast of Ulsan.

The Korea National Oil Corporation announced on Thursday that an extractable gas reserve measuring 40 billion cubic feet had been located at the Gorae-Eight drilling field some five kilometers southwest of the Donghae-One area. That figure is equivalent to 800,000 tons of liquefied natural gas.

According to the Korea National Oil Corporation, an excavation to a depth of 2,757 meters revealed the presence of a 37 meter-thick layer of gas at the 2,247 to 2,284 meter range. The Corporation noted that tests had shown the gas to be accessible and of high quality.

A total of 800,000 tons of liquefied natural gas can power 340,000 households in the Ulsan-Gyeongnam area for a period of two years, and amounts to 4.4 percent of annual Korean domestic consumption. The price tag in the international market for an equivalent volume is about $280 million (\280 billion).

The Gorae-Eight field will be developed by connecting it to a pipeline from the Donghae-One reserve, where gas has been produced since July 2004. Full-scale production at the Gorae-Eight site is set to begin in the second half of 2007.

The Korea National Oil Corporation expected development and investment costs for production at the Gorae-Eight site to be held down to economical levels through the employment of existing equipment used to draw gas from the Donghae-One gas field.

The Corporation is planning to drill two or three more mining sites next year after conducting a detailed exploration from July through August of sea areas assumed to hold large gas reserves.

Chang-Won Kim changkim@donga.com