SK Innovation to focus on developing shale gas

Koo Ja-young, the vice chairman of SK Innovation, said yesterday that his company is developing its unconventional energy business, with a focus on shale gas, at its mines in the United States.

“The shale development boom that first started out in the United States is now expanding all over the world,” Koo said last Monday during his visit to SK Innovation’s recently acquired production sites in Oklahoma.

“In preparation of such increasing business opportunities, we would like to further develop our U.S. oil fields as the overseas base station of SK Innovation’s future unconventional energy sources,” said Koo.

SK Innovation was Korea’s first private company to gain the development and management rights of a U.S. oil field and to begin a shale gas production facility, the company said.

About 15 percent of its total oil and gas production in Oklahoma comes from shale rock, a type of sedimentary rock formed from mud that is usually used to manufacture cement and bricks, SK Innovation added.

After taking over the oil mines in Texas and Oklahoma in March, the company increased daily production to 3,750 barrels of crude oil and gas from the previous 2,500 barrels.

The company managed this by bringing in its most recent technologies in drilling and water pressure reduction.

SK Innovation spent a total of $360 million obtaining a 75 percent share in an oil field located in Oklahoma’s Grant and Garfield counties, from Plymouth Exploration and KA Henry.

The company also purchased a 50 percent share in another oil field in Crane County, Texas.

Including its site in Texas, SK Innovation’s total daily production in the United States is 4,500 barrels.

BY KIM JI-YOON [jiyoon.kim@joongang.co.kr]