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BP reportedly tapped as preferred bidder for Korea's deep-sea gas project

Published: 20 Oct. 2025, 16:55 Updated: 20 Oct. 2025, 19:36

The West Capella drillship conducts an operation in the East Sea to check an oil and gas prospect in the ocean on Dec. 28, 2024. [NEWS1]

The Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) has tapped Britain's BP as the preferred bidder for Korea's project to develop oil and gas prospects in the East Sea, industry sources said Monday.

The KNOC reached an internal decision last week and is in talks with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources before officially announcing the bidding result, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Korean company opened the bid in March to find a foreign partner who will have up to 49 percent of the stake in the project aimed at developing seven potential oil and gas reserves in the deep sea off the coast of Yeongil Bay in Pohang, North Gyeongsang.

The KNOC conducted its first exploratory drilling into the “blue whale prospect,” one of the seven prospects, for nearly two months since December and concluded that the prospect does not have economic feasibility.

The corporation earlier said it will establish a new business plan for the deep-sea gas development project after it selects a preferred bidder, including whether to conduct additional exploratory drilling of the potential reserves.

According to the sources, BP was selected as the preferred bidder as it applied for the largest stake in the project and submitted a detailed road map on the development of the gas prospects.

Multiple foreign companies, including U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil, reportedly took part in the bidding.

Meanwhile, the Industry Ministry recently decided to ask the Board of Audit and Inspection to look into controversies surrounding the deep-sea gas project, including the selection of U.S.-based geoscience consulting firm ACT-GEO as an advisory firm to conduct an initial feasibility study on the project.

Yonhap