Under a memorandum of understanding, Korea’s Import-Export Bank and Korea Export Insurance Corp will provide financial support, although the amount was not disclosed.

The deal came during a bilateral meeting between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov, the Presidential Office said in a statement. Lee is on a trip to energy-rich Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan from 10-14 May to secure foreign energy reserves.

The Surgil gas field holds an estimated 4.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Last year, the two countries launched a 50:50 joint venture, Uz-Kor Gas Chemical, to secure financing for the US$3 billion project.

Separately, state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) secured complete exploration rights to two oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan -- the Namangan-Tergachi and Chust-Pap blocks, estimated to hold 67 million barrels of crude.

South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, is the world’s fifth-largest crude oil importer, buying up to 900 million barrels of crude per year, mostly from the Middle Eastern market.

Lee will be in Kazakhstan from 12-14 May, where he will discuss the construction of a thermal power plant and a joint exploration of the Zhambyl block on the coast of the Caspian Sea.