By Josun Ilbo

The Korea National Oil Corporation has secured about 39 million barrels of oil in Iraq, enough to supply Korea’s total oil consumption needs for 18 to 20 days.

The KNOC confirmed on Tuesday that it has detected an oil reserve equivalent to 258 million barrels in the Demir Dagh well at the Hawler minefield in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Commercial production is due to begin soon, it added.

The KNOC, which has a 15-percent stake in the minefield, has secured the rights to 39 million barrels out of the total proven oil reserve.

"This is the largest amount of oil the company has secured from a single well since its founding," a company official said.

The KNOC will start producing 10,000 barrels of oil per day at the site from early this month. It plans to increase this to 40,000 barrels a day when the second production facility is completed in late August.