Overview
- Presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said the UAE designated South Korea as the No. 1 priority for crude supplies during emergency conditions.
- Seoul secured an additional 18 million barrels on top of 6 million earlier, with 12 million to sail on six Korean-flagged tankers and 6 million on three UAE-flagged vessels.
- Cargoes are set to load from a UAE port on the Arabian Sea to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, and a separate vessel carrying naphtha is already en route to Korea.
- The government raised its oil resource security alert to Level 2 and prepared contingencies including a potential IEA stock release, energy‑saving measures and price‑cap enforcement.
- South Korea and the UAE expect to sign an oil supply‑chain cooperation MOU soon after high‑level meetings, and most short‑term Korean nationals in the UAE have returned home safely.