President Suh Moon-kyu of Korea National Oil Corp.

 An oil exploration consortium including Korea National Oil Crop. and GS Energy has successfully test-produced 20,000 barrels daily from wells in the first UAE Abu Dhabi Mining District about, KNOC said recently.

The state-owned oil company projected that the mining district contains around 100 million barrels of crude oil. The potential reserve of oil is the primary indicator of whether the district is commercially viable or not.

In May, the Korean consortium discovered enough oil in the five low strata in the Haliba structure to test-produce 10,000 barrels. In October, in the second test-drilling of HB-4, they were able to test-produce 8,000 barrels of oil in the HB-4 experimental exploration area.

The test-exploration of the Abu Dhabi Mining District has so far proved that the district has around 30 percent more in oil reserves than was projected when the decision was made to kick off exploration in the district. More than 100 million barrels of oil have been secured in the Haliba area alone, KNOC said. 

KNOC aims to advance development of the Haliba structure to begin commercial production from 2017. The state-owned company will test-drill three more areas in the Haliba structure, looking for more oil to produce.

The South Korean joint venture exploring for oil in Abu Dhabi aims to start drilling within months, the first stage of a US$500 million spending plan for the next five years.

Korea National Oil Corporation (Knoc) and GS Energy - companies that last year made South Korea the first new country to partner in an Abu Dhabi oil concession in four decades - are securing rigs for three appraisal wells planned at the Haliba field on the Omani border.

If the drilling is successful, the Korean partners and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) hope to start producing a few thousand barrels of oil per day to start generating a modest income while they proceed with full-field development, a five-to-six-year process.

"We have high hopes that the organisation will be as successful as other Adnoc joint ventures such as Adco [Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations] and Adma-Opco," said Eugene Synn, Knoc's executive vice president of exploration, in an interview at the company's headquarters.

"Abu Dhabi is the most stable in politics and most developed in economics in the Middle East and has a very friendly environment for foreign investment," he added.

Knoc is among the companies vying for a slice of a far larger concession, a family of onshore fields responsible for 1.4 million barrels per day, or half the emirate's output. Bids for the Adco concession, as it is known, are due in October.

Haliba's oil is believed to be a close chemical match to Abu Dhabi's flagship Murban crude. Also called Area 1, Haliba is one of three exploration blocks in which the Korean partners hold a 40 per cent joint interest. Adnoc holds the remainder.

The partners completed seismic imaging of the field last year.

"Area 1 is the promising area," said JWEun, the leader of GS Energy's Middle East & Africa team. "This one is onshore and easier to access. We think inside it are big volumes."

The company is slowly building up expertise, both at a technical institute in Calgary, Canada, and through a partnership with Anadarko at the Eagle Ford Shale formation in Texas.