Daewoo International, a leading South Korean trading company, has recently signed a service contract with a geological research institute in Uzbekistan for the development of oil fields in the Central Asian country, according to the trading firm Wednesday.

Under the contract, a geological survey will be conducted for oil and gas deposits in the Ustyurt region, where Russia’s Gazprom and Lukoil as well as China National Oil & Gas Exploration & Development have recently been exploring natural resources, The Korea Times reported.

If the survey shows good results, it would push for a formal contract for the right of exploration and management of the two fields, each 2,600 square kilometers and 5,200 square kilometers in size, Daewoo International said.

``We signed the contract for additional energy exploration along with our development of gas fields in Myanmar,’’ a company spokesman said. ``We will further focus our efforts on the Central Asian region in the coming years.’’

Daewoo International, which has more than three decades of international marketing expertise, has raised some $70 million in trading profits involving Uzbekistan since 2002, $62 million of which was through third-party trade.

It also set up two companies in Uzbekistan -- Daewoo Textile and Daewoo Unitel -- both of which have the biggest market shares in their respective industries of the country, as it has been closely involved with the country’s cotton industry since 1998.

Daewoo International is now concentrating more on energy and natural resources development businesses abroad, including the Central Asian region. Besides the oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan and Myanmar, it also considers doing business in Azerbaijan.