Dana Petroleum will send hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to Korea next month – the biggest single shipment since being bought up by the country’s state-owned energy company.
Oil produced by Aberdeen-based firm’s North Sea assets is typically sold through local markets.
But in November, Korea National Oil Company – which paid £1.7billion for Dana in 2010 – is sending two million barrels of North Sea Forties crude to GS Caltex in South Korea in November.
That includes 300,000 barrels produced by Dana, which said yesterday that the vast export is likely to become the first of many.
“As part of the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), Dana is playing an important role in securing oil supplies for South Korea, one of the largest importers of oil and gas in the world,” a Dana spokesman said. “This latest shipment is a good example of the mutually beneficial relationship that has developed since KNOC acquired Dana in 2010.”
Last year about 800,000 barrels of North Sea Forties crude that Dana produced was delivered to South Korea – 200,000 barrels for GS Caltex and 600,000 barrels for another Korean refiner, Hyundai Oilbank.
GS Caltex, with a 775,000 barrel-per-day refining capacity, is equally owned by Chevron, the second-largest US oil company, and South Korea’s GS Energy, owned by GS Holding.
According to KNOC data, South Korea imported 18.6million barrels of crude oil from Europe in the first nine months of this year, down 51% from a year before. It did not import any European crude in August and September this year.
Dana produces 60,000 barrels a day (bpd) but has ambitions to grow this to 100,000bpd-plus by 2016.
Operations in the North Sea contributed about 35,000bpd last year.
It is the only international oil and gas company to have its headquarters in Aberdeen.
It recently started drilling operations at its Western Isles project – two months ahead of schedule.
Dana is having a floating production and storage vessel for the Western Isles field constructed in China.
First oil from the £1billion scheme involving the Harris and Barra fields in the northern North Sea is anticipated in late 2015.
The fields are estimated to contain recoverable oil reserves of more than 45million barrels, and daily production is expected to reach up to 40,000 barrels.
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