People Power Party: "Daewang Whale Failure Is Not Final... Additional Exploration Needed to Increase Success Chances"

Overseas Resource Development: A Product of Patience and Challenge
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The People Power Party stated regarding the ‘Daewanggorae Project,’ a deep-sea gas field development project in the East Sea confirmed to have failed to secure economic feasibility, that "it is not the time to declare failure." They emphasized the need to increase the chances of success through additional exploration.

Kim Dae-sik, the senior floor spokesperson for the People Power Party, said in a commentary on the 7th that the ‘Daewanggorae Project’ is "a significant task to strengthen South Korea’s energy security and resource sovereignty," and criticized opposition parties’ remarks calling it a "national scam" as "an irresponsible attitude that belittles national efforts."

Spokesperson Kim said, "Looking at global resource development cases, success is the result of patience and challenge," adding, "The Daewanggorae Project is still in its early stages, and it is an important task to increase the possibility of success through additional exploration." He also noted, "Gas indications were confirmed in the first drilling, and the structure and components of the reservoir received positive evaluations," and assessed, "This result is important data that cannot simply be concluded as a failure and will serve as a crucial foundation to increase the chances of success in future exploration and additional drilling."

On December 30 last year, the West Capella was conducting exploratory drilling operations at the Daewang Whale promising structure located in the sea off Pohang City, Gyeongbuk. Photo by Yonhap News

He also emphasized the need to secure related budgets in future budget reviews. He pointed out, "The Democratic Party cut the entire 49.7 billion won budget for the East Sea deep-sea gas field development in the 2025 budget, pouring cold water on a national project," and criticized, "Attempts to block additional exploration based on the results of the first Daewanggorae drilling are tantamount to giving up South Korea’s energy security and industrial future."

Spokesperson Kim urged the Democratic Party, "Please cooperate immediately to secure a stable budget for additional exploration." He added, "Referring to global resource development cases that achieved success through challenge and accumulation without fear of failure, I hope we move forward together for South Korea’s energy independence."

At a meeting with reporters, he also said, "Since we have taken the first step this time, I think we have obtained a lot of data," and added, "The ruling and opposition parties should actively cooperate and support this."

Meanwhile, opposition parties criticized the series of projects as budget waste. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, said at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly regarding the failure of the Daewanggorae exploration drilling, "The state put money into a scam drilling that could have bought 3,000 high-spec graphics processing units (GPUs) for AI research," and stated, "If that money had been used not for this (drilling scam) but to buy 3,000 high-spec GPUs for AI researchers with 100 billion won immediately, how much would it have helped Korean AI research?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.