30 September 2013 News Wires – State-run Korea National Oil Corp, KNOC, said on Sunday its Canadian subsidiary found at least 5.9 million barrels of oil in a well where it began drilling earlier this month.
KNOC’s wholly-owned subsidiary Harvest Operations was drilling the well in the north-western mining area of Royce, in the Canadian province of Alberta.
It is now producing the equivalent of 800 barrels per day of combined oil and gas, KNOC said in a statement.
According to KNOC, the well is now worth US$470 million and there was potential for a further 30 or 40 drilling sites to be developed. These included Harvest-owned sites in the Deep Basin and Loon regions.
The company said it also planned to invest heavily in shale gas in the Muskwa region, as well as oil sands in the Black Gold mine as part of Harvest’s non-conventional crude oil sector.
Last week, the state-run player announced it was considering selling the “non-core parts” of Harvest.
KNOC bought the Canadian oil and gas trust for US$1.7 billion in 2009.
Harvest reported a net loss of C$720 million (US$698.5 million) last year. However, its upstream sector recorded operating profits of C$3 million in 2012, despite production failures caused by natural disasters.
