Energy Pioneer

Oil block in Oklahoma under development by SK Innovation.
Oil block in Oklahoma under development by SK Innovation.

 

SK Innovation Vice Chairman Koo Ja-young announced that his company would aggressively participate in the development of non-conventional natural resources in the United States. Non-conventional natural resources such as shale gas, oil sand, and extra-heavy oil, can be defined as those hard to be drilled with traditional techniques.

His announcement, which was made during his recent visit to SK E&P America in Huston and the newly-acquired oil block in Oklahoma, is to cope with deteriorating conditions in the oil refining industry as of late, by means of natural resources development.

SK Innovation purchased the Oklahoma oil block, and another one in Texas, in June this year, and applied horizontal drilling and fracking to the former to increase the daily production volume from 2,500 barrels to 3,750 barrels. Combined with the output from the Texas oil block, the amount of petroleum that SK Innovation produces in the U.S. is reaching 4,500 barrels per day.

“Approximately 15 percent of the crude oil and gas produced in Oklahoma is from the original rock layer, which means we are now producing shale resources,” the company explained. At present, SK Innovation is the only Korean company engaged in the production of shale gas and oil in the U.S.

In March this year, the company acquired 75 percent of the Grant/Garfield County field in Oklahoma from Plymouth and KA Henry, along with 50 percent of the Crane County field located in Texas, through SK E&P America at a combined cost of US$360 million. SK Innovation is producing 70,000 barrels of crude oil a day in seven production sites, 15 drilling sites, and four LNG development projects in 15 countries around the world.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution