Dana Petroleum is proving to be a lucrative asset for its Far East owner and helping South Korea to become more self-sufficient in terms of energy, one of the Aberdeen oil firm’s management said yesterday.
Ohkyeu Baek, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) chief strategy officer at Dana, said KNOC’s acquisition of the north-east company in late 2010 in a £1.7billion deal was paying off for the South Korean parent in many ways.
Dana’s oil production has jumped by 25% since the hostile takeover, to 55,000 barrels per day, he said.
Output from Dana’s producing assets now made up nearly one-quarter of KNOC’s total of around 240,000 barrels per day, he added.
By the end of last year the value of Dana’s assets had jumped by more than 55% since the takeover, to more than £2.9billion, while KNOC has taken dividends of around £124million.
Dana aims to double its daily oil production to 100,000 barrels by 2016.
It has secured an additional 53.4million barrels of oil in confirmed reserves since KNOC’s takeover, boosting its current total for these to some 211million barrels.
Mr Baek, who works at Dana’s Aberdeen headquarters, said exploration projects were expected to boost daily production from the North Sea alone to about 50,000 barrels per day by the end of 2015.