South Korea has secured 74.6 million barrels of crude oil for May, lessening the country’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil imports amid ongoing regional conflict, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Friday.
Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff for President Lee Jae Myung, said in a press briefing that the level of oil imports secured for next month reaches 87 percent of the 2025 monthly average.
He added that South Korea’s search for alternative crude-importing countries in the Americas and Africa reduced South Korea’s dependence on the Middle East from 69 percent to 56 percent.
“There is no need to be concerned about supply disruptions,” Kang said.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, the oil imports came from Algeria, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Oman, the Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
South Korea’s reliance on the US for crude imports has grown significantly, with May’s volume over 25 percent higher than the 2025 average.
Meanwhile, 24 million barrels of crude oil from Saudi Arabia and 16 million from the United Arab Emirates will not be imported through the Strait of Hormuz.
Before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war, South Korea had relied on Saudi Arabian oil imports through coastal ports in the Persian Gulf, as well as Iraq and Kuwait.
Kang said this was an outcome of “swift actions jointly by the government and the private sector.”
In the previous week, Kang announced that South Korea would secure 273 million barrels of oil imports through the end of this year, after he led a South Korean delegation’s trip to Kazakhstan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in early April.
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