SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Monday he gave the green light to conduct exploration drilling of potentially vast oil and gas prospects that had been found off the country's east coast.
The possibility of the area containing as much as 14 billion barrels of oil and gas is "very high," Yoon told a news conference citing a study that he said has been reviewed by experts and industry groups.
"Today, I approved the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to go ahead with the drilling for exploration in the deep sea in the east sea," Yoon said.
The drilling project is estimated to cost 500 billion won ($362.5 million) and it will begin near the end of the year with the hope of producing a finding by the first half of next year, he said.
Yoon said South Korea has conducted a series of explorations for oil and gas beginning in 1996 and tapped a gas reserve of about 4.5 million barrels. Commercial development of that reserve was completed in 2021, he said.
The new prospects are potentially large enough to contain enough gas that would fuel the country for 29 years and oil equivalent to four years of consumption, he said.
South Korea is the world's fourth-largest buyer of crude and gas, according to the Korea National Oil Corporation, and the world's ninth-largest energy consumer.
Energy stocks jumped after Yoon's announcement.
Shares of SK Innovation were up more than 6%, Korea Gas Corporation rose more than 8%, SK Gas was up more than 8%, and Daesung Energy surged more than 13%.
($1 = 1,379.1500 won)
(Reporting by Jack Kim, Hyonhee Shin and Jihoon Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jamie Freed)
