South Korea Oil and Gas Report Q1 2012 Forecasts Oil Consumption of 2.37mn Barrels Per Day (B/D) By 2016

Friday, Jan 27, 2012

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "South Korea Oil and Gas Report Q1 2012" report to their offering.

“South Korea Oil and Gas Report Q1 2012”

Renewed domestic exploration efforts may prove to be a false dawn for the Korean upstream sector, but IOC partners are hopeful of enlarging the country's very modest resource base. Meanwhile, LNG is set to play a still greater part in the energy picture, leading to the fresh import deals and possible terminal expansion.

The main trends and developments are:

South Korea's Daewoo International and STX Energy have been awarded the right to explore in the central and southern section of Block 6-1 off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to a statement from Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The companies are the first two privately owned South Korean companies to win exploration rights in the country. They plan to start exploration in 2012, although no details of the exploration plan have been released.

The oil demand growth assumptions are cautious, averaging less than 1% per annum through to 2016 before stagnating as fuel substitution and energy-saving measures put the brakes on consumption. The economy relied on oil for an estimated 42.5% of its energy demand in 2010, and the government is planning to reduce that share to 35% by 2030. The report is forecasting oil consumption of 2.37mn barrels per day (b/d) by 2016.

South Korean oil imports are set to remain around 2.25-2.35mn b/d over the next five years, falling to US$79.8bn by 2016. The author is forecasting gas consumption of 48.9bcm by 2016, implying import costs of US$22.5bn - taking total petroleum import expenses to approximately US$102.4bn for that year.

Source: Business Wire

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