Korea plans to introduce measures to help establish a new industry dealing with so-called shale gas that will also help ensure the country’s leadership in the global market for the energy resource, the government said Wednesday.

A market for the previously inaccessible fossil fuel is currently almost non-existent globally as shale gas, or natural gas deposited in shale, had been considered uneconomical due to the lack of technologies to extract it.

“We must all be aware that the world stands at the gate of a new golden age of natural gas that was sparked by shale gas,” said Cho Seok, a vice minister from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

“We must therefore take preemptive steps to transform this movement into a new opportunity for our own energy industry,” he told a special seminar, attended by some 350 government officials and representatives from related businesses.

South Korea has already launched a joint government-business task force to look specifically into the possibility of developing and introducing shale oil to the country.

The ministry said a detailed set of measures to support the development of shale gas technology will be produced next month.

The move partly comes as shale gas is already becoming an important source of fuel in advanced countries, including the United States, a country with which South Korea has a free trade agreement.

In addition, previously untouched shale gas could provide a source of large quantities of natural gas for South Korea, which is looking to nearly double its self-sufficiency of fossil fuel from 10.8 percent in 2010 to 20 percent this year. 

(Yonhap News)