South Korea Secures 270 Million Barrels of Oil Through Routes Unaffected by Strait of Hormuz Blockade

SadaNews - A senior official in Seoul announced today, Wednesday, that South Korea has secured supplies of over 270 million barrels of crude oil through routes that were not affected by the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The director of the president's office in the South Korean capital, Kang Hoon-sik, said, "The people have been informed that my visits to four countries resulted in securing the import of 273 million barrels of crude oil by the end of this year."

Kang explained after returning from a tour in Kazakhstan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, that this amount is sufficient to meet South Korea's oil needs for more than three months.

Like many Asian economies, South Korea has faced increasing risks to its energy supplies since the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran at the end of February, to which Tehran responded with retaliatory measures, including the near-total closure of the strait.

Kang noted that about 60% of South Korea's crude oil imports last year passed through this waterway, which the United States began blockading this week.

He added that Seoul has also obtained an additional 2.1 million tons of naphtha, a petroleum-derived substance used in the production of a variety of plastic products.

Kang mentioned that this figure "is equivalent to nearly one month's imports based on last year's import volume."

He continued by saying that the supplies of these two materials "will thus directly and significantly contribute to the stability of local supply and demand."