Kogas On Lookout For Shale Gas Assets Overseas

Korea Gas Corp. is keen to focus on unconventional energy sources and develop shale gas resources in countries like China and the US, Dow Jones said.

"Amid the continued rise in oil prices and depletion of conventional gas reserves, global interest in unconventional gas categories is increasing," Lee Jong-ho, executive vice president for the company's Resources Development Division, said in a recent interview to Dow Jones.

The Korean firm is looking to join hands with Chinese firms to tap into country’s potentially huge shale gas reserves. At the same time China too is putting a lot of effort to develop its unconventional gas sources.

China recently set a target of producing 6.5 billion cubic meters of shale gas a year by 2015 from virtually zero this year, and hopes to produce between 60 billion and 100 billion cubic meters a year by 2020.

While Kogas is more likely to choose the U.S. as its next investment destination for a shale gas project, the South Korean gas developer "will keep an interest (in China) and look for ways to cooperate," Lee said.

Kogas is currently involved in a shale gas project in Horn River and West Cutbank of Canada.