Tuesday, April 8th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - SK Group has purchased stakes in American oil fields. This is the first time for the group to move into the U.S. oil exploration market since plunging into the overseas resource development business 31 years ago.
SK Innovation said on April 7 that it won controlling stakes in two oil fields in southern states of the United States through its local subsidiary SK E&P America, which paid a total of 387.1 billion won to buy a 75-percent stake in an oil field in Grant and Garfield counties in Oklahoma from Plymouth Exploration LLC and a 50-percent stake in an oil field in Crane County, Texas, from KA Henry I LLC. Earlier in March, SK Innovation had established the subsidiary company SK E&P America in Houston to take care of the oil development projects in North America.
The Grant-Garfield field is currently producing 2,500 barrels of oil a day and the Crane field 750 barrels a day. The company expects that it could increase the output at the Grant-Garfield field and that it could acquire advanced exploration techniques from KA Henry I. The company invested in 1997 in five oil fields in Texas and Louisiana but this is the first time to take controlling stakes. Currently SK Innovation has seven operational fields and 15 exploratory fields across the world in 15 countries.