SEOUL, March 11(WAM) - A South Korean consortium consisting of KEPCO, the Korea National Oil Corp. and Daewoo Shipping and Marine Engineering will develop oil fields that produce 2 billion barrels in Nigeria.

With South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo attending, the consortium Friday signed a contract with the Nigerian government to explore two oil fields named OPL 321 and OPL 323, according to Yonhap News.

President Roh is on a nine-day trip to Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria to seek ways to promote diplomatic ties and economic cooperation with the African countries. He left Korea on March 6.

The two countries have been working on the petroleum development project since July last year. They will jointly develop oil fields, build gas plants and construct gas pipes under the memorandum of understanding signed last July.

Last August, the South Korean team won the international bidding for the development rights to the fields that are believed to have the high potential to yield quality petroleum.

Near the would-be productive oil fields are huge fields run by ExxonMobil, such as the Erha field with an annual production capacity of 600 million barrels, and the Bosi field, which produces 1 billion barrels a year.

This raises the possibility that the OPL 321, 323 fields will become another golden field.