Korea National Oil discovers more crude in Kazakhstan field

ASTANA. November 30. KAZINFORM Korea National Oil Corp., South Korea's state energy explorer, said it discovered a further 11 million barrels of crude oil in the ADA block in Kazakhstan.

According to Bloomberg, the discovery raised reserves at the block being developed with LG International Corp. and Kazakhstan's Vertom to 41 million barrels, the Anyang, South Korea-based energy developer said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

The block in the northwestern part of the central Asian country has been on trial production since July 2009 and is producing 3,200 barrels of crude a day. Reserves at the block may double after KNOC carries out further exploration next year, the developer said in the statement.

KNOC has focused on investing in producing fields rather than buying companies, after completing a hostile takeover of Scotland's Dana Petroleum Plc for 1.8 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) last year.

Daily crude output from fields the company has bought totaled 203,000 barrels in August and Korea National aims to boost output to 300,000 barrels by 2012 and to 600,000 barrels by 2019, according to its annual briefing to lawmakers in September.

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