A potentially massive oil and gas reserve could be buried off the southeast city of Pohang, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday.

The reserve off Yeongil Bay in Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul, could hold up to 14 billion barrels of oil and gas, an amount that could meet South Korea’s gas demands for 29 years and oil demands for four years, Yoon said.

He cited a geophysical study conducted by U.S. geoscience firm Act-Geo.

“The recent results indicate a very high possibility of deposits amounting to 14 billion barrels of oil and gas, and these findings have been verified by leading research institutions and experts,” Yoon said during the briefing at the presidential office.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has approved the exploration drilling plan, with preliminary results expected by the first half of next year.

The government had discovered the high likelihood of additional oil and gas fields around the gas field in the East Sea in February last year, and a leading deep-sea te
chnology evaluation company was commissioned to conduct an in-depth geophysical survey, Yoon said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency