South Korea has moved to safeguard its energy supply by securing an emergency shipment of roughly four million barrels of crude oil from the United Arab Emirates, as the ongoing U.S.-Israel war with Iran continues to rattle global oil markets.
The agreement announced Friday comes amid escalating tensions around the Strait of Hormuz — the strategic Gulf waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s crude oil flows.
Iran has claimed control of the vital shipping lane, raising concerns over disruptions to global energy supplies and prompting countries heavily dependent on the route to seek alternative arrangements.
Seoul, which relies significantly on crude transported through the strait, said it had already dispatched tankers to secure fuel deliveries from ports in the UAE that bypass the chokepoint.
“We plan to immediately berth two South Korean-flagged oil tankers — each with a capacity of 2 million barrels — at alternative ports within the UAE that do not require passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said.
In addition to the shipments, South Korea said it had secured access to additional emergency reserves.
Kang explained that the UAE had pledged that “up to 2 million barrels from the jointly held strategic reserves that the UAE stores in South Korea can be made available at any time upon request.”
According to U.S. government data, South Korea is the world’s fourth-largest crude oil importer. About 70 percent of the country’s oil imports typically pass through the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the vulnerability of its energy supply chain to disruptions in the Gulf.
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