Korea National Oil Corp., South Korea’s state energy developer, said it will join an Apollo Global Management LLC-led group that agreed to buy El Paso Corp.’s oil and gas exploration business for $7.15 billion.

The group, which includes Riverstone Holdings LLC and Access Industries Inc., will probably make the acquisition in the first half, the Anyang, South Korea-based company, known as KNOC, said on Tuesday in an e-mailed statement, without giving a value or details of its proposed holding.

“The deal is in line with our efforts to boost output from invested overseas oil assets,” Lee Za-kang, a spokesman at KNOC, said by telephone.

The El Paso purchase is the second asset-deal KNOC has signed with Apollo in four months. KNOC agreed in December to buy Parallel Petroleum Corp., an oil and gas producer based in Midland, Texas, from Apollo for $771.5 million.

The state energy developer produced 220,000 barrels a day from its invested overseas oilfields last year and aims to boost the daily output to 300,000 barrels this year. (Bloomberg)