South Korea will start drilling for oil in the United Arab Emirates in 2017 from fields that were discovered to hold commercially available crude, the state-run oil firm said Friday.

The Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) said the joint exploration team extracted 18,000 barrels of crude from appraisal wells in the Haliba field on the Omani border in May and October and confirmed that its chemical component is close to Abu Dhabi's flagship Murban crude.

The KNOC had formed a Korean consortium with GS Energy in 2012 to develop three oil fields in partnership with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the UAE's state-owned oil firm.

The partners will start drilling up to 5,000 barrels a day starting in late 2017 and increase the daily production to 40,000 barrels in 2019, the KNOC said.

Haliba is one of three exploration blocs in which the Korean consortium holds a 40 percent interest, with the remainder being held by the ADNOC. The partners have been gathering data and seismic imaging of other fields to develop oil reserves. (Yonhap)