South Korea will send five ships to Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port to secure alternative oil routes, bypassing the closed Strait of Hormuz amid rising prices.
SEOUL: South Korea will dispatch five Korean-flagged ships to the Saudi Arabian Red Sea port of Yanbu to establish alternative oil supply routes and bypass the disrupted Strait of Hormuz.
The move comes as oil prices have surged amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, raising significant growth and inflation risks for South Korea, which relies on Middle Eastern crude for around 70% of its imports.
Iran has effectively closed the critical Strait of Hormuz, a vital global route for crude oil and gas, in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes.
The situation has prompted Seoul to prepare emergency measures, including implementing a fuel price cap, which is the first such step since 1997.
Lawmaker Ahn Do-geol stated that Korean-flagged vessels need to be dispatched to secure crude supplies using export routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are pushing to deploy five South Korean-flagged vessels to Yanbu port in Saudi Arabia, in the Red Sea region,” he told reporters after a meeting with relevant agencies, without providing further details.
He added that special envoys would also be sent to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria to help secure additional crude supplies.
Like other Asian economies, South Korea relies heavily on energy imports through the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure has driven up energy prices and rattled the global economy.
The situation has prompted the government to propose a USD 17.2 billion supplementary budget to cushion the economic impact, with President Lee Jae Myung warning the economy is effectively on a “wartime footing”.
The country’s energy ministry has also recently issued guidelines urging the public to conserve energy, including by taking shorter showers and charging mobile phones during daytime hours.
