RusEnergy

24.02.2005 MosNews - South Korea's National Oil Corporation (KNOC) will cooperate with Russia's state-owned Rosneft Oil Company in prospecting the western shelf of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The information was reported on Thursday, Feb. 24, by Itar-Tass agency which quoted KNOC officials as saying that an intermediate financial agreement with Rosneft was signed. Joint work will start in the first half of 2005, a KNOC representative said. The agreement worth $150 million envisages seismic prospecting to be carried out this year. The sides have agreed to drill three prospecting wells by 2008. KNOC will be in charge of the project's financing from the start of the exploration work till the project enters the commercial phase. In the course of the oil fields' operations Rosneft "will receive its share of profits", say Korean media without specifying the amount. South Korea depends on the Kamchatka fields which are said to have 900 million tons of oil reserves for the diversification of its energy supplies.