Korea National Oil Corporation

Korea National Oil Corporation
한국석유공사 Hanguk Seogyu Gongsa
Company typePublic
IndustryPetroleum
Founded1979; 45 years ago (1979)
HeadquartersUlsan, South Korea
Area served
Canada
China
Indonesia
Kazakhstan
Nigeria
Uzbekistan
Peru
Russia
South Korea
United Kingdom
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Key people
Dong Sub Kim, President and CEO
ProductsOil, gas
RevenueDecrease US$2.51 billion (2019)[1]
Decrease US$80.3 million (2019)[1]
Total assetsDecrease US$16.18 billion (2019)[1]
Total equityDecrease US$518.4 million (2019)[1]
Number of employees
1,272 (2012)[2]
Websitewww.knoc.co.kr/ENG/main.jsp

Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) is the national oil and gas company of South Korea and one of the most important industrial companies in the country.[3] The company has operated and continues to operate oil and gas fields in Vietnam,[4] Peru,[5] Indonesia, Nigeria,[6] Yemen,[7] Kazakhstan,[8] Russia, China, Canada[9] Venezuela,[10] the United Kingdom and South Korea.

The company has oil reserves of around 600 million barrels (95,000,000 m3)[11] and gas reserves of 10 billion m3.

On 26 September 2008, KNOC signed a deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government where KNOC was granted rights to explore and drill on several sites in the Iraqi Kurdistan in exchange for valuable support on a range of infrastructure projects.[12]

In 2009, the company purchased Harvest Operations for US$1.7 billion, along with its subsidiary North Atlantic Refining and its refinery in Come By Chance, Newfoundland and Labrador. It also assumed Harvest's US$2.2 billion in outstanding debt.[11][13][9] The US$3.9 billion bid was one of KNOC's largest deals at the time. That same year, the company acquired a 50% stake in privately held Petro-Tech, an oil firm with offshore assets in Peru.[14]

On 2 July 2010, KNOC confirmed preliminary discussions regarding a US$2.9 billion offer for the entire issued and to-be-issued share capital of Aberdeen-based Dana Petroleum.[15][16] In September 2010, Dana's management had continued to reject the takeover approach, but 64% of shares had already been bought by KNOC.[17][18][19] The takeover was official in October 2010, when KNOC secured 90% of Dana Petroleum's shares by going straight to the shareholders. The action led to the resignment of the chairman and three non-executive directors from the board.[20]

  1. ^ a b c d "Korea National Oil Corporation".
  2. ^ Edaily Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Jun 12, 2008.
  3. ^ "Korea National Oil". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  4. ^ "StackPath". www.offshore-mag.com. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  5. ^ "UPDATE 2-Colombia and Korea oil firms buy Peru Petro-Tech". Reuters. 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  6. ^ "UPDATE 3-Nigeria court rules for S.Korea firm in oil case". Reuters. 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  7. ^ "Yémen : Total entre dans un nouveau bloc à terre auprès de KNOC". TotalEnergies.com. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  8. ^ "S.Korea's KNOC in talks with Kazakhstan to drop oil field project". Reuters. 2016-08-05. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  9. ^ a b "Korea's $3.9 Billion Oil And Gas Buy". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  10. ^ Asia, The Wall Street Journal (2009-03-23). "South Korea, Venezuela sign oil and natural-gas accord". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  11. ^ a b South Korean Oil Company Buys Canadian Producer
  12. ^ "Prime Minister Barzani signs historic oil agreements with South Korea". Archived from the original on 2012-02-11. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  13. ^ "History of the Refinery at Come by Chance". North Atlantic Refining. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
  14. ^ "Korea National Oil acquires half of Peru Petro-Tech". Reuters. 2009-02-06. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  15. ^ "KNOC comes knocking". The Economist. 2010-08-26. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  16. ^ "Korean oil group in bid for Dana Petroleum". BBC News. 2010-07-02. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  17. ^ "Dana Petroleum takeover firm KNOC backs acquisition". BBC News. 2010-09-17. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  18. ^ "KNOC stands firm on £1.87bn bid for Dana Petroleum". BBC News. 2010-09-09. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  19. ^ "Hostile takeover of Dana Petroleum likely". The Guardian. 2010-09-09. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  20. ^ "Dana Petroleum board members step down after takeover". BBC News. 2010-10-12. Retrieved 2022-04-24.