Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
KOGAS expands overseas natural gas projects
Seen is Prelude floating LNG unit in waters off northwest Australia. Korea Gas Corp. has a 10 percent stake in the platform, which shipped its first LNG products last month. Courtesy of Korea Gas Corp.
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS) is expediting its overseas natural gas projects ranging from exploration to distribution, offering Korea some stability in securing the energy source, according to the state-run firm, Wednesday.
KOGAS is currently running 25 projects in 13 countries. The projects include exploration and production of natural gas, liquefying the gas, and the construction of pipelines and terminals.
Of notice among those projects is the Area 4 deep water LNG project in offshore Mozambique, which marks the largest gas field exploration success in KOGAS' history. KOGAS has a 10 percent stake in the project, and the local government granted approval on the project in May.
Currently, Samsung Heavy Industries is building a Coral South floating LNG unit for the project, and the phase one investment for the project will be determined in the second half of this year. It will produce natural gas from 2024.
The Mozambique project came after KOGAS celebrated the commercial operation of the Prelude floating LNG unit in waters off northwest Australia last year. The Prelude unit shipped its first LNG last month. KOGAS also has a 10 percent stake in the project, which will produce up to 3.6 million tons of LNG a year.
In Mexico, KOGAS is running the Manzanillo LNG Terminal with a 25 percent stake. This marks the first time for KOGAS to directly own and operate an overseas LNG plant. For the project, the company invested 62.3 billion won in 2008 and has reclaimed 60 percent of it just six years after the terminal to begin commercial operation.
These helped KOGAS to log 42.2 billion won in net profit from overseas business last year, and sell 36.22 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Korea during the same period.
“With KOGAS' world-leading technology and overseas network, we will continue exploring new projects in emerging markets and step up our effort to become a global LNG provider,” a KOGAS official said.
Earlier this month, KOGAS named Chae Hee-bong as its 17th president, filling a 10-month vacuum in its leadership.