Crude Oil in Kazakh Mine
On August 28, the Korea National Oil Corporation announced it had found crude oil in its marine mine on the Kazakhstan Jambyl coast near the Caspian Sea.
A Korean consortium of eight domestic companies including the Korea National Oil Corporation, SK Innovation, and Hyundai Hysco has 27% share of the Jambyl mine. The rest belongs to Kazakhstan KazMunay Gas (KMG).
The exploration ship (ZB-1) that found the crude oil began drilling last May and achieved its goal depth of 2,200m. Then, through a drill stem test (DST), it successfully retrieved a maximum of 843 barrels of oil per day in the two lower sandstone layers.
What is special about this exploration is that Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, one of the Korean consortium companies, successfully used its barge-type submarine drilling ship for the first time since its development.
The Korean consortium and KMG will start additional exploratory drilling next year to double check the area’s potential resources and business value.
The Korea National Oil Corporation also found oil in Hawler, Iraq this past February.
The Caspian Sea has about 100 oil companies from all over the world operating there. As of last year, the confirmed amount of reserves was 38.2 billion barrels.