SEOUL, May 26 (UPI) -- South Korean officials have announced they plan to propose a joint oil and gas exploration project to Japan, Yonhap news agency reported Friday.
"Preliminary surveys of the area have raised the possibility of undersea geographical features that could contain gas and oil," said an official at the South Korean Commerce Ministry.
South Korean Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Chung Sye-kyun is to propose the two countries conduct a joint field assessment of oil and gas prospects on the continental shelf that lies between them at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Toshihiro Nikai, in Tokyo Friday.
If the Japanese agree to the proposal, the assessment work would take place on the Joint Development Zone of the Korea-Japan continental shelf, ministry officials said.
The Joint Development Zone was set up by South Korea and Japan in 1978 for the purposes of oil and gas exploration on the continental shelf. It covers 31,875 square miles, south of South Korea's Cheju Island, and northwest of the Japanese Ryuku island chain, running between Kyushu and Okinawa.
The Joint Development Zone is believed to have 36 million tons of gas reserves.
