South Korea, the world's fifth-largest crude oil importer, said on Sunday that it had secured access to at least a billion barrels of crude oil reserves in an unprecedented oil deal with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Reuters reports.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU), Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) will be guaranteed stakes in technically recoverable reserves of at least 1 billion barrels of oil worth 110 trillion won ($97.68 billion) based upon current oil prices, the South Korean presidential office said in a statement.
South Korea is competing with China and India to secure energy and minerals reserves at a time when oil prices are surging.
KNOC itself, which has a substantial war chest to spend on cutting Asia's fourth-largest economy's almost total dependence on imported oil, recently spent $2.6 billion to buy Dana Petroleum, an oil exploration and production company.
"The partnership for 100 years, which started between the two countries thanks to the nuclear deal, has been strengthened more by today's deal," President Lee Myung-bak said in the statement.
Ties between South Korea and the UAE have boomed after the Gulf Arab state in December 2009 awarded a South Korean consortium the contract to build four nuclear power plants worth $20.4 billion.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU), Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) will be guaranteed stakes in technically recoverable reserves of at least 1 billion barrels of oil worth 110 trillion won ($97.68 billion) based upon current oil prices, the South Korean presidential office said in a statement.
South Korea is competing with China and India to secure energy and minerals reserves at a time when oil prices are surging.
KNOC itself, which has a substantial war chest to spend on cutting Asia's fourth-largest economy's almost total dependence on imported oil, recently spent $2.6 billion to buy Dana Petroleum, an oil exploration and production company.
"The partnership for 100 years, which started between the two countries thanks to the nuclear deal, has been strengthened more by today's deal," President Lee Myung-bak said in the statement.
Ties between South Korea and the UAE have boomed after the Gulf Arab state in December 2009 awarded a South Korean consortium the contract to build four nuclear power plants worth $20.4 billion.