US geoscience research firm reports discovery of 14 additional oil and gas prospects in East Sea

A U.S. geoscience research company has made a report on the potential discovery of 14 additional oil and gas reserves in Korea's East Sea amid an ongoing fossil fuel exploration project in the area, officials said Monday.

Act-Geo, the U.S. firm behind Seoul's oil exploration project in the East Sea, recently reported such a possibility to the Korea National Oil (KNOC), according to the officials from the KNOC and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The findings are yet to be confirmed as the preliminary report needs to go through a further verification process with local and foreign experts.

In the report, Act-Geo said it has found 14 additional oil and gas prospects in the East Sea, with potential deposits of between 680 million barrels and 5.17 billion barrels of oil and gas, according to the officials.

The prospect with the largest potential energy reserve of 1.29 billion barrels has been named the Goblin Shark.

Last year, the U.S. firm also reported the potential discovery of seven fossil fuel reserves that could hold up to 14 billion barrels of gas and oil, including the one widely known as Blue Whale.

Korea kicked off its first exploratory drilling into the Blue Whale prospect in December and plans to announce the results around May or June. (Yonhap)