Seoul dismisses Woodside's negative assessment of East Sea E&P project

The photo shows a gas production facility of Donghae-1 gas field in the East Sea, where Korea first began production in 2004 and ended production in 2021. Courtesy of Korea National Oil Corp.

Korea on Thursday dismissed Australian energy company Woodside Energy's analysis that the government's East Sea oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) project was unpromising.

In its half-year 2023 report posted on its webpage, Woodside said it exited from futureless mining projects around the world, including the Korean one, to optimize its E&P portfolios.

The Seoul government immediately released a statement to refute the report, saying Woodside's argument "does not conform to the facts when all related circumstances are considered."

On Monday, President Yoon Suk Yeol announced that Korea will push to embark on the project in the East Sea after a study suggested significant oil deposits may be buried in the deep sea off the coast of Yeongil Bay in Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The government commissioned U.S.-based geoscience research firm Act-Geo to conduct a study in February last year, which reported that the deposits could hold between 3.5 billion and 14 billion barrels of gas and oil.

Woodside partnered with Korea National Oil Corp. from 2007 to 2016 to push ahead with the oil and gas E&P projects in Block 8 and the northern part of Block 6-1 in the East Sea, 30 km east of Pohang.

In 2019 when the two parties found potential oil and gas fields in the projects, they obtained the exclusive mining rights from the Korean government until 2029. But Woodside exited in January 2023 after expressing its intention to withdraw from the project in July 2022.

"Woodside's withdrawal was part of its overall business reorganization following its merger with Australia's mining firm BHP Petroleum in June 2022," the energy ministry said. (Yonhap)