Kim Dong-seop, president of the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), said on the 20th, "We consider the Blue Whale exploration as part of our investment, and we have not yet stopped just because we failed the first time."
Kim made the remarks during a parliamentary audit by the Trade. Industry Energy. SMEs. and Startups Committee held at Kangwon Land in Jeongseon County, Gangwon, on the morning of the day, in response to a question that asked, "Isn't the recovery rate 0% because you spent a large amount of funds to develop Blue Whale Project No. 1 and did not recover them?"
He added, "To move from exploration to development, it takes about 10 times the money."
He said he was sorry that the oil corporation acquired Harvest, a Canadian oil and natural gas producer, and invested more than 8 trillion won but recorded a recovery rate of less than 1%.
He went on to explain, "Resource exploration is divided into exploration blocks, development blocks, and production blocks, and in the case of Harvest, production blocks are characterized by requiring a lot of money," adding, "For the Harvest segment, we are managing risks and so on."
Regarding Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Han-kyu's criticism that the selection of the contractor for the "Blue Whale Project" was poorly conducted, he said, "Until now, we have made decisions internally," adding, "There were parts where we did not carefully examine the rules. Going forward, we will examine them carefully."
Regarding the fact that multiple foreign major corporations participated in the overseas investment attraction bid that closed Sept. 19, he said, "The major companies are well aware of the Blue Whale exploration failure and the government's budget cuts," adding, "Even so, they say they will come and invest money."
He continued, "Most importantly, with the manpower of the major companies, these corporations say they will invest and allocate experts for the next five or 10 years," adding, "This can be the best cross-check to determine whether there is business viability and so on."