Korea Gas Corp. said Tuesday that it has appointed Jang Seok-hyo, former director of resources at the state-run company, as its new CEO.He will replace Choo Kang-soo, who resigned in May.Jang, who graduated from Inha University and earned his master’s degree in management at the University of Minnesota, has served various posts since he joined KOGAS in 1983. It is the first time since the corporation was founded 30 years ago that KOGAS has appointed a CEO from inside the company. By Kim Joo-hyun

The state-run Korea Trade Insurance Corp., known as K-sure, and Korea Export-Import Bank will offer $1.5 billion in loans to the “Sabine Pass” liquefied natural gas project in the U.S., K-sure said on Monday.The LNG project refers to the LNG-related facility expansion project at Sabine Pass in the state of Louisiana, which will allow the U.S. to export LNG for the first time in its history. The U.S. government has stepped up lifting a ban on LNG exports in line with the rising supply of natural

This is the fourth in a series of case studies on the nation’s leading state-run companies which have made success stories overseas. ― Ed.KOGAS, which has imported LNG and supplied imported gas to local power companies since its foundation in 1983, last Thursday hosted a groundbreaking ceremony in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, in southeast Africa for its new overseas business project. Under the project, KOGAS will construct a 59-kilometer gas pipeline by October this year in Maputo and distribu

State-run conglomerates that have been given enhanced management independence are about to bear bigger burdens to meet high expectations this year as the government wants them to maintain their leadership through profit increase and new business development.The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Friday that it will keep its hands-off approach with Korea Gas Corp, Korea District Heating Corp, Incheon International Airport Corp. and Korea Airports Corp.The ministry has added Busan Port Authorit

An international consortium, including Korea Gas Corp., or KOGAS, signed a joint exploration and production contact with the Cyprus government to search for gas in three offshore blocks, KOGAS said. “The consortium is composed of KOGAS and Italy’s ENI. KOGAS secures a 20 percent stake in the consortium, while ENI holds the remaining 80 percent stake,” a KOGAS official said Friday. “Operations for gas search on blocks 2, 3, 9 off the east Mediterranean island will be led by ENI for the next three

Korea Gas Corp., the state-run natural gas importer and supplier, had the best-performing stock of the year, according to a report by Daeshin Securities on Monday. In a survey of stock gains between Jan. 2 and Dec. 18 on the top 100 stocks by market value, shares of KOGAS, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas importer, gained the most, rising 82.3 percent. Shares of Amore Pacific, the nation’s largest cosmetics brand, and Orion, the second-largest confectionery company in Korea, followed, u

The state-run Korea Gas Corp. said on Friday it is seeking to expand its shareholdings in a gas field in Mozambique to 30 percent from the current 10 percent. KOGAS CEO Choo Kang-soo told reporters on Friday that price will be a key factor for additional investment decisions in the Mozambique gas field. KOGAS found 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at one of four wells in an offshore block in northern Mozambique waters in October this year. KOGAS is also running a gas pipeline and operating

Chavez and Ortiz are both from Barinas, a city of about 250,000, and attended high school togetherVenezuela sent a high-school friend of President Hugo Chavez to Korea as the South American country’s new chief diplomatic representative in a bid to bolster bilateral ties. Charge d’Affaires Yadira Hidalgo de Ortiz, former vice minister of communes and social protection who attended high school with Chavez, arrived in Korea on Sept. 12 to head up her nation’s diplomatic mission here.Chavez and Orti

South Korea will seek to develop shale gas as a new major source of energy and expand the country’s imports of the new fossil fuel to 20 percent of all natural gas imports by 2020, the government said Thursday.The country will also take part in overseas development projects to further improve its energy self-sufficiency with shale gas accounting for 20 percent of its self-developed energy supplies in 2020, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.The move comes as shale gas is opening up what the

The Korea Gas Corp.’s efforts to find natural gas off the coast of Mozambique have made progress, raising hopes for new reserves of overseas natural resources for the nation.The state-run energy corporation has actively participated in the deepwater projects in the African country since 2007. Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has sought to reduce its heavy reliance on resource imports.The latest discovery of a natural gas field in the African nation came on Aug. 1. Korea’s Ministry of Knowle

Three neighbors jockeying for control of huge oil, gas, mineral reserves in East China SeaThe East China Sea has been contested for decades by South Korea, China and Japan, all seeking to tap huge oil, gas and mineral reserves believed be buried under the seabed. With their extended continental shelves overlapping in the northeastern part of the ocean, the Asian powers are laying formal claims with a U.N. body in charge of sea shelf carve-up.The three-way jousting recently took a twist. Seoul an

The Korea Gas Corp. announced on Wednesday that it has detected a new deposit of natural gas off the coast in Mozambique for the fourth time. The gas company had previously discovered deposits of natural gas three times in Mozambique, in October 2011, February 2012 and March 2012. Now it has made its fourth discovery in the 12,956 square-kilometer basin area in Rovuna, northern Mozambique, the company said.Eni S.p.A. of Italy holds a 70 percent stake in the project. KOGAS, Portugal’s Galp Energi

Korea Gas Corporation will start importing 3.5 million tons of U.S. liquefied natural gas each year from 2017 for 20 years.Sabine Pass LNG, which signed the long-term deal to export LNG to KOGAS in January, received authorization from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to construct and operate facilities for the liquefaction and export of natural gas.The approval allows Sabine Pass LNG to produce and export 16 million tons of LNG annually from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron P

South Korea has imported no oil or natural gas from any of the overseas fields it controls, despite having poured a total of 16 trillion won ($14.1 billion) to secure these assets, the country’s audit and inspection agency said Saturday.The Board of Audit and Inspection announced, after reviewing the status of 17 overseas crude and gas production operations up till July 2011, that the country imported no fossil fuel resources from any of these fields. It said that of the 17, only two located in

South Korea has imported no oil or natural gas from any of the overseas fields it controls, despite having poured a total of 16 trillion won ($14.1 billion) to secure these assets, the country's audit and inspection agency said Saturday.The Board of Audit and Inspection  announced, after reviewing the status of 17 overseas crude and gas production operations up till July 2011, that the country imp