February 7, 2025
SEOUL – The South Korean government has determined that one of the potential oil and gas prospects under exploration in the East Sea lacks economic feasibility, the Industry Ministry said Thursday, reporting the preliminary results of the first drilling operation, which concluded earlier this week.
“When assessing economic feasibility, we consider multiple factors, including gas indications, reservoir characteristics, cap rock and gas saturation levels,” a senior ministry official said in a briefing.
“The most crucial factor is hydrocarbon gas saturation. While we found signs of gas, the saturation levels were not significant enough to be meaningful.”
Hydrocarbon saturation rates are a key factor in determining how much oil and gas can be extracted from a reservoir.
The country launched a large-scale drilling exploration project in June after a study by a foreign seismic research company suggested that the East Sea contains seven oil and gas reserves with potential deposits of up to 14 billion barrels. At the time, the government estimated the value of these prospects at 2,200 trillion won ($1.5 trillion).
While economically viable oil and gas deposits are rarely discovered from a single drilling attempt, the future of the project remains uncertain, as it is a flagship initiative of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is currently detained and under investigation on charges of insurrection.
However, other key geological structures essential for oil accumulation — such as basement rock, reservoir (sand), cap rock (mud) and trap — were collected and showed more positive results than initially expected, the ministry official said.
“The findings from this operation are expected to serve as important data for future exploration of the remaining six prospective structures,” the official added.
For the remaining six prospects, the government plans to attract foreign investment and is preparing to launch the bidding process in March.
“Some major global companies have already expressed interest in bidding. If we successfully attract investment, drilling will proceed in consultation with these companies,” the official said. “We believe that continuing exploration through foreign companies is beneficial from a resource development perspective.”
The drillship West Capella, which conducted exploratory drilling in the Blue Whale prospect area starting in December, completed its operation on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the geoscience research firm Act-Geo reported a potential discovery of 14 additional oil and gas reserves in the East Sea on Monday. According to the US-based firm, the newly identified prospects could contain deposits ranging from 680 million to 5.17 billion barrels of oil and gas.