* KOGAS currently holds 20 pct stake in LNG Canada project
* Concrete progress over sales plan to be made early 2014
By Jane Chung
DAEGU, South Korea, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Korea Gas Corp(KOGAS) is considering selling 5 to 10 percent ofits stake in the LNG Canada project, in which it currently holds20 percent, the KOGAS chief executive said on Tuesday at theWorld Energy Congress.
The announcement comes after South Korea's new government earlier this year initiated a review of state-owned overseasinvestments in oil and gas due to poor profitability.
"Concrete progress over the sales consideration will be madeearly next year," KOGAS CEO Jang Seok-hyo told reporters, addingthat the aim is to improve its financial structure.
Asia's fourth-largest economy is heavily dependent on energyimports and rapidly expanded overseas investments to develop oiland gas reserves between 2008 and 2012, hoping to fend offinflation driven by rising import costs.
LNG Canada is a joint venture involving Shell Canada Ltd,KOGAS, Mitsubishi Corp and PetroChina Co Ltd that is to build and operate a liquefied natural gas(LNG) export terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, according tothe LNG Canada web site (lngcanada.ca).
KOGAS, the world's largest corporate buyer of LNG, reportedlast month to the stock exchange that it was considering sellingat least part of its 15 percent holding in the $18.5 billionGladstone LNG (GLNG) project in Australia.
Jang on Tuesday declined to say how much of its stake in theGLNG project KOGAS might sell.
The government installed this past February has said itwants to focus more on the quality than the quantity of SouthKorea's energy investments.
The policy shift earlier prompted another state-run firm,Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), to say it was consideringselling "non-core parts" of its loss-making Canadian energysubsidiary Harvest Operations.
