SEOUL (Commodity Online) : Asia’s fourth largest economy, South Korea said it has plans to buy two foreign oil companies by the end of this year.

Speaking to reporters here Korea’s Vice Knowledge Economy Minister Kim Young-hak said government is currently beefing up exclusive negotiations with five companies, and mergers and acquisition deals with two are expected to be reached this year.

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If the purchase project is achieved, the total volume of oil that can be produced from fields controlled by South Korean companies could rise from current 1.1 billion barrels to nearly 6.5 billion barrels, Kim said.

Besides, the country has already took stakes of several oil fields in northern Iraq, which could product nearly three billion barrels, Kim said.

The government is making effort to raise funds through various financing channels, and nearly 9 billion U.S. dollars are expected to be gathered to ensure the merger deals, Kim added.

South Korea is one of the largest oil-consumers in the world, and it almost relies on foreign imports.

It has put forward a overseas resources development plan aiming to achieve self-sufficiency ,ownership of natural resources by Korean companies, to a level of 30 percent by 2016.