Vitor Abreu, who heads the U.S.-based geoscience research company Act-Geo, speaks to reporters in the central city of Sejong on June 7, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEJONG, Jun. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — A potential discovery of oil and gas reserves off South Korea’s East Sea is “highly prospective,” Vitor Abreu, the owner of the U.S. geoscience research company Act-Geo behind the project, said Friday, citing the presence of hydrocarbons in the offshore fields.
“So to summarize … the basin is highly prospective,” Abreu, the owner of the Houston, Texas-based research firm, said during a press briefing in the central city of Sejong, noting that the discovery “has presence of all the key main elements.”
The briefing organized by the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) came after President Yoon Suk Yeol announced Monday that Act-Geo’s study suggested significant gas and oil deposits may be buried in the deep sea off the coast of Yeongil Bay in Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Act-Geo estimated that the deposits could hold between 3.5 billion and 14 billion barrels of gas and oil. Once confirmed, the quantity would be theoretically sufficient to meet the country’s gas and oil demand for up to 29 years and four years, respectively.
(Yonhap)
