07 February 2014, News Wires – State-run Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) has submitted a plan to the South Korean government to sell some of its stake in Iraq’s Akkas gas field in 2015 or later, the company told the stock exchange in a filing on Friday.
South Korea’s state-run energy companies, including KOGAS, face heavy pressure from a new government to shed assets and pay off debt by 2017.
All three have submitted asset disposal plans to the government and await approval, company sources have said. KOGAS, the world’s top corporate buyer of liquefied natural gas, did not elaborate in the filing, submitted last month.
The company did not say how large a stake it wanted to sell, but added that no sale process had yet been kicked off.
A KOGAS source on Thursday confirmed a media report that the firm was considering selling 49 percent of its fully-owned Akkas field for 309 billion Korean won ($286.38 million), though it intends to retain operating control. K
OGAS signed a deal in 2011 to develop the Akkas gas field in the western province of Anbar, Iraq’s largest, with reserves of 5.6 trillion cubic feet. ($1=1079.0000 Korean won)
– Reuters
