OECD Asia · KOR
South Korea
A manufacturing island on imported molecules. Nuclear is the strategic hedge; LNG is the operational one.
Oil production
0.0 mb/d
2.9 mb/d demand
Net oil
-2.9 mb/d
Import gap
Gas production
0 bcm
Net -58 bcm
O&G rent
0.0%
Share of GDP
Oil balance
Production versus demand, 2025, million barrels per day.
Gas balance
Production versus demand, 2025, billion cubic metres.
Proven oil
0 bn bbl
Gas reserves
0.0 tcm
Refining
3.3 mb/d
LNG
58 bcm import
Hydrocarbon mix
Oil versus gas in this country’s oil-and-gas demand (oil-equivalent).
- Oil58%
- Gas42%
Inflows and outflows
What leaves. What arrives.
South Korea outflows 0 kb/d crude, 0 bcm LNG. Inflows 0 kb/d crude, 45 bcm LNG.
Local crude
Dubai / Oman
$116.0
3 January 2026 · Maduro ousted
28 February 2026 · Iran war started
The Asia-Pacific sour marker. When Hormuz tightens, Dubai and Oman lead Brent instead of following it.
All crude tapes and bpd flowsMapped crude
Barrels per day.
This economy is not on the mapped seaborne board. The corridors that rewired in 2026 are on Flows.
LNG out
None mapped.
LNG in
- Australia15 bcm+3 bcm
- United States13 bcm+4 bcm
- Malaysia7 bcm+1 bcm
- Qatar6 bcm−8 bcm
- Oman4 bcm−1 bcm
Economy
Chaebol energy bills are a competitiveness variable. High oil and JKM together squeeze chemicals and steel. SMRs and more reactors are industrial policy dressed as climate policy.
- GDP
- $1.9 tn
- Population
- 52.0 m
- Oil intensity
- 0.6 bbl /$1k
- Oil & gas rent
- 0.0% GDP
- Hydrocarbon trade
- 5.1% GDP
- Fiscal breakeven
- —
- $30 oil shock
- -16.8 pp GDP
- Club
- Independent
Projected oil demand
Regional IEA WEO 2025 oil pathways applied to this country’s 2025 baseline. STEPS 2035 demand 2.5 mb/d (net -2.5) versus NZE 1.4 mb/d (net -1.4).
| Scenario | 2025 | 2030 | 2035 | 2050 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stated Policies | 2.9 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 2.0 |
| Net Zero 2050 | 2.9 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.5 |
| Current Policies | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 2.1 |