SKorean consortium, Rosneft find oilfield off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula

SEOUL - Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) said a local consortium it is leading, along with Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft have discovered an oilfield off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
It estimates the field has reserves well in excess of its initial estimates.
'This is much bigger than what we had expected to find there. The reserves
could be bigger than 10 bln barrels,' a spokesman for state-run KNOC said.
The South Korean consortium has a 40 pct stake in the project, with
Rosneft holding the rest.
'We plan to carry out further analyses with a view to drilling test holes
late next year,' the spokesman said, adding that commercially recoverable reserves are
usually about 40 pct of geographical reserves.
Companies involved in the Kamchatka project signed a memorandum of
understanding in September 2004. At that time the field was estimated to
contain 3.7 bln barrels.
Yonhap news agency said the oilfield is estimated to cover 62,680 square kilometers, or roughly two-thirds the size of South Korea.
afp