MOSCOW, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- South Korea is seeking to vastly boost its natural gas imports from Russia, a South Korean energy magnate has told Russian businessmen.
The South Korean gas company Kogas wants to participate in developing Russia's vast gas fields in a joint investment with Russian partners, the President Oh Kang Hyun told the Moscow Times.
Oh told a business meeting in Moscow Wednesday that Kogas, the main importer of natural gas into South Korea was interested in boosting its imports from Russia to satisfy rapidly growing domestic demand, the newspaper said citing an Interfax news agency report.
South Korea is one of the world's largest importers of liquefied natural gas and in 2003 it consumed about 20.9 million tons of LNG, 16 percent of the world's total consumption. From 2008, the country expects to experience a shortage of 5.5 million tons a year at current import levels and that is projected to grow to a huge 22 million tons a year shortfall by 2020, the report said.
Oh said Kogas wanted to ensure long-term, stable gas supplies and wanted to try and keep its imports competitive in price terms while maintaining flexibility of supplies. He said Kogas' main project in Russia was the development of the Kovykta gas condensate field, the report said.
