South Korea Targets 2035 Oil Diversification Goal

The South Korean government has finalized its '1st Resource Security Master Plan' at the 6th Resource Security Council meeting. The plan aims to reduce reliance on Middle Eastern crude oil from approximately 70% to below 50% by 2035.

To achieve this goal, the government plans to expand its strategic oil reserve facilities to 20 million barrels by 2030, which would cover about seven days' supply of Korea's daily oil consumption. Additionally, the plan includes increasing long-term crude oil contracts and supporting the development of refinery facilities and related technologies to process diverse crude oils.

The government also aims to manage natural gas supplies to reduce dependence on any single country to below 30%. Dependence on Qatari gas has already decreased from 35.5% in 2016 to less than 20% currently.