SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2001
Singapore company to drill for oil in N Korea
SINGAPORE: A Singapore oil company will drill for oil in the northeast of North Korea near the Chinese border, the company said on Friday.
Sovereign Ventures signed a 25 year agreement with the hardline communist North Korean government in September, its vice president Ben Tan said.
He said it is the first foreign company to get a license to drill on land in North Korea.
The company will spend "between dlrs 10 million and dlrs 100 million" on the three-stage project, said Tan.
The license to drill covers a 3-year testing stage, 2 years of exploration and 20 years of development and production in the 6,000 square kilometer (3,728.4 square miles) area covered in the agreement, he said.
Sovereign Ventures is a subsidiary of Korasia, which has been operating shipping and trading companies in North Korea for more than 18 years, the company said in a statement.
No company tax will be applicable for the first 5 years of operation, it said. Tan said the reserves should produce more than 150 million barrels of oil. ( AP )
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