South Korea cuts entire budget for deep-sea gas field project... Ministry of Industry and Trade budget for next year to 11.4336 trillion won

The deep-sea gas field project off the coast of South Korea, also known as the "Blue Whale," a core project being promoted by South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, has received a budget of 49.7 billion won (about 5.2 billion yen) next year.
On the 10th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced at the National Assembly plenary session that the ministry's 2025 budget and fund operation plan will be reduced by 0.4% from this year, for a total of 11.4336 trillion yen.
On September 2, the government submitted a bill to the National Assembly totaling 11.5 trillion won (approximately 1.2 trillion won). Of this, 67.5 billion won was allocated to the four projects during the National Assembly deliberation process.
The bill was finally passed by the National Assembly. Among the four projects, 49.7 billion won was cut from "oil field development project investment," which refers to a deep-sea gas field project off the coast of Korea.
In the National Diet Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, the largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, cut all funding for the deep-sea gas field project without reaching an agreement with the government and ruling party, and the bill was passed exclusively.
The remaining three projects will be approved by the National Assembly's Small and Medium Enterprises and Industry Committee on Industry, Trade, Resources and Small Businesses after discussions between the ruling and opposition parties and the government.
The Korea Mining Corporation's investment (down 12.5 billion won), R&D innovation scale-up loans (down 2.8 billion won), and international joint research on energy (down 2.5 billion won) were also reduced.
In the case of the deep-sea gas field project, the drilling ship West Capella arrived at Busan's southern port the day before and is scheduled to move to the drilling site around the 17th to begin full-scale drilling operations.
The first drilling is expected to cost about 100 billion won, but as the government's budget for the project has been completely cut next year, it is possible that the cost will be covered by issuing corporate bonds from the Korea National Oil Corporation.
On the 3rd, after the Democratic Party of Korea passed the Exclusive bill in the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Committee, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Park Song-taek said in a briefing at the government complex in Sejong, "One of the public enterprises of the Korea National Assembly, the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee,
"It is natural and our responsibility for the government to support the next public exploration drilling," he said. "Although the government has been supporting oil field development investment since 2000, it has stopped supporting it due to total budget cuts.
I don't think it's a rational decision to reject it."