Korea National Oil Corporation has acquired private Peruvian oil company Petro-Tech for US$900 million with Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol. Petro-Tech is capable of producing 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day. This is the first time KNOC has acquired a foreign oil company.

The two sides invested $450 million each to acquire their 50 percent stake and have equal rights to appoint management, with KNOC appointing the CEO. Petro-Tech is a private company that owns 75 percent of Peru’s offshore oil fields containing 150 million barrels of deposits. It owns one excavation block that can produce 10,000 barrels a day and 10 exploration blocks that contain an estimated 690 million barrels of deposits.

The acquisition amounts to 9 percent of KNOC’s total global investments in oil fields and boosts Korea’s self-sufficiency in oil from 5.7 to 6 percent. KNOC intends to boost daily crude production to 45,000 barrels by 2015 and develop the other 10 blocks.

(englishnews@chosun.com )