Kogas On Acquistion Trail

Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas) has set aside about KRW2.3 trillion ($2.1 billion) for overseas resource development investments this year, a senior executive at the company said.

Choo Kang-soo, President and CEO of the state owned company, said that it was is in initial stages of talks with Chinese officials for investing in China's unconventional gas fields.

Choo's comments come as South Korea is keen on securing energy, announcing earlier Thursday that it will aim to nearly double the nation's self sufficiency for oil and gas to 20% by next year through new assets.

Kogas will jump into "all" gas development projects, "unconventional or conventional, so long as they have enough commercial value," Choo said. But he noted the global trend is shifting towards developing unconventional gas such as shale gas and coal gas due to enhanced availability of such assets as countries adopt advanced technologies and learn to commercialize them at lower costs.

The gas company's latest major overseas resource development projects include an estimated $2.66-billion Akkas gas field project in Iraq as well as the Gladstone LNG project in Australia.

The company is already world's largest corporate buyer of LNG.

Kogas previously said that it would be interested in buying more shale gas assets in Canada and the United States.  In February, KOGAS bought into EnCana Corp's Canadian gas assets.

In May, Kogas announced it will go ahead with the development of one of Iraq's largest gas fields by doubling its share following the withdrawal of Kazakhstan state gas company KazMunaiGas EP JSC from the project. Kogas currently has a 75% stake in the project, up from 37.5% previously, with Iraq's state-run North Oil Company holding the remaining 25%.