It’s worth exploring oil in Yeongil Bay

If our success rate is higher than Guyana’s, wouldn’t it be fine to actually take the challenge?

CHO WON-KYEONGThe author is a professor at UNIST and the head of the Global Industry-University Cooperation Center. John D. Rockefeller, known as “the king of oil,” said that luck goes to those who really want it. Korea has been an oil producer. Discovered in 1998, the East Sea gas field produced gas and petroleum from 2004. By the end of 2021, it ran out and drilling stopped after creating an economic value of 2.6 trillion won ($1.89 billion).

The best place to find oil is where oil has already been discovered. That’s why the Korea National Oil Corporation has started exploration of the continental shelf on the East Sea. Japan is also conducting oil and gas exploration activities in the East Sea. China is exploring oil and gas fields in the Northern Jiangsu Basin in the Yellow Sea and in the waters near the East China Sea. As of June 2024, the total number of bores is 48,799 by China, 813 by Japan and 71 by Korea. There is an expression that active oil explorers consider a golden rule: Once discovered, oil resources can be continuously produced.

Both Korea and Israel had little natural resources in the past. After successfully discovering gas fields in the shallow water in the late 1990s, Israel went a different path from Korea. While Korea conducted deep-sea drillings at only three sites after discovering gas fields in the shallow sea, Israel conducted 28 drilling explorations in waters more than 700 meters (2,297 feet) deep. As a result, Israel found a large gas field for the first time in 2009.

After the discovery, Israel transformed from a gas importer to a gas exporter and became rich with natural resources. Gas mined in the Tamar region in northern Israel makes up 40 percent of energy needed for the country’s power generation. If Korea pays heed to the success of Israel’s resource development and actively conduct deep sea exploration, wouldn’t the country be able to write a history of luck and success?

Controversy still lingers over oil deposits in Yeongil Bay — more specifically, block 8, the northern part of block 6-1, and the middle eastern part of block 6-1 — all in Pohang, North Gyeongsang. The probability of finding oil — in other words, the geological exploration success rate — in the exploration drilling stage is 20 percent, which is very high.

Guyana in South America discovered the largest deep sea oil fields of the century with a geological exploration success rate of 16 percent. If our success rate is higher than Guyana’s, wouldn’t it be fine to actually take the challenge?