South Korea is to propose to Japan Friday to carry out a joint
maritime survey on oil and gas on the continental shelf between
them, South Korea's Yonhap News reported.
The proposal will be made at Friday's meeting between Chung
Sye-kyun, South Korea's Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy,
and Chung's Japanese counterpart Toshihiro Nikai in Tokyo, Yonhap
quoted unnamed South Korean official as saying.
"Preliminary surveys of the area have raised the possibility of
undersea geographical features that could contain gas and oil,"
Yohap quoted an official of the Commerce Ministry as saying, adding
the estimated gas reserve in the area is 36 million tons.
According to Yonhap, South Korea suggests conducting the survey
in an 82,557-square-km waters between South Korea's Jeju Island and
northwest of Japan's Ryuku Island chain.
The two neighbors set up the area in 1978 to explore gas and oil
in the continental shelf.
(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2006)
