The country also wants to be involved in Australian energy exploration, according to another report in the Korea Times.

Plans for the moves will be presented by the South Korean delegation during the 21st South Korea-Australia meeting on Energy and Mineral Resources Consultation and Cooperation in Canberra this week, the reports said.

But an official from the Asian nation’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) declined to comment to the Korea Times on how many Australian oil and gas field development projects Korea would try to join.

MOCIE deputy minister of energy resources policy, Lee Won-gul, met Australia’s Department of Industry, Tourism deputy secretary, John Ryan, at the two-day meeting.

South Korea is seeking new oil supplies other than those in the Middle East because it depends on that region for 80% of its oil imports, the reports said.

The North West Shelf project has also provided 500,000 tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas to the Korean Gas Corporation (Kogas) since 2003, with the contract to end in 2010.

The Korea Herald said Australia had asked Kogas to purchase more LNG.

South Korea has said it could consider the proposal later in the year after finishing an agreement for three billion tonnes of LNG to be supplied after the deadline.

An MOCIE official also said the attraction of state-run Hydro Tasmania, the largest renewable energy provider in Australia, would have been discussed at the meeting.