South Korea Keeps Emergency Measures Despite Crude Import Recovery

The South Korean government has decided to maintain emergency measures related to crude oil imports despite seeing imports recover to 88% of pre-Middle East war levels. According to data from Korea National Oil Corporation, total June imports were up 14.1% from April and reached 73.579 million barrels.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that August crude oil and naphtha procurement volumes have been secured at 100% of the prior-year average, indicating stable forward-looking procurement volumes.

Emergency supply-demand adjustment measures for naphtha and petrochemical products, as well as the petroleum product price ceiling system, will remain in place. The government has left the door open for normalization, stating that emergency measures should not be maintained longer than necessary.