Some 300 energy experts from Korea and the United States discussed ways to cooperate in the shale gas industry at a symposium in Seoul on Tuesday.
 

The participants held in-depth discussions on ways to strengthen technical exchanges on shale gas development, organizers said.

The Korea Gas Corp. and New Mexico-based research center Sandia National Laboratories jointly hosted the “2015 Korea-U.S. Shale Gas Technology Cooperation Symposium” as a follow-up measure after the two countries signed a pact on close collaboration in the energy sector in 2013. Sandia National Laboratories is a contractor to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

“New challenges and perspectives for further collaboration were discussed at the conference. We will jointly map out mid- and long-term research plans,” Yoon Jun-il, a KOGAS researcher, said.

The symposium explored opportunities for bringing together government and private sector experts to share their knowledge and experience in relation to shale gas, according to the state-run energy firm.

“The government is fully committed to supporting local companies’ overseas shale gas development projects,” said Park Il-joon, director of energy policy department of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy during the conference.

Peter H. Kobos from Sandia National Laboratories gave a presentation on “Shale Gas: Modeling the Economic Factors and Quantifying Uncertainty” while KOGAS’s senior researcher Shin Chang-hoon explained KOGAS’ shale gas development work and current status of the government’s research projects on the unconventional fuel.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)