The amount of oil that refiners and oil import-export companies are required to stockpile will be reduced from 40 days' worth to 20 days' worth. Yang Gi-uk, Deputy Minister for industry and resource security at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, said at the Middle East war response headquarters' daily briefing on the 28th that "although there are no major issues with the domestic supply-demand situation, we decided to lower the private stockpiling obligation to implement the joint resolution of the International Energy Agency (IEA)."
Under Article 17 of the Petroleum and Alternative Fuel Business Act, refiners and oil import-export companies must stockpile oil within a range of up to 60 days to stabilize oil supply and prices. The current notice requires stockpiling the equivalent of 40 days of average daily domestic sales, but this will be lowered to 20 days.
The downward adjustment of the mandatory stockpile is to carry out a joint resolution with the IEA. On Mar. 11, Korea agreed with the IEA to jointly release a total of 22.46 million barrels on a 5-to-5 ratio between the government and the private sector.
However, the government decided not to release its stockpiles to prepare for unavoidable situations ahead. Deputy Minister Yang said, "With 15 million barrels circulating in the private sector, there is little need to release government stocks," adding, "We judged that it would be better, from a national interest perspective, to prepare for situations that may become difficult later."