South Korean Heavy Oil Usage Firms Devise Consumption Reduction Plan Amid Supply Disruptions

SEOUL, April 3 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- Fifteen companies with heavy petroleum consumption have agreed to reduce their annual consumption of oil by 956,000 barrels to join South Korea's ongoing energy-saving efforts, officials said Friday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The companies announced their plan during a meeting with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment held to discuss ways to reduce industrial energy consumption, which accounts for around 60 per cent of the country's total energy consumption, according to the ministry officials.

The companies said they will cut their combined energy consumption by 610,000 tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE), which corresponds to 1.73 per cent of their energy use in 2024.

They also plan to annually cut combined petroleum consumption by 130,000 TOE, an amount equivalent to approximately 956,000 barrels of oil.

Earlier this week, the government raised its resource security crisis alert by a notch to Level 3, the second-highest level in South Korea's four-tier crisis warning system, as the country is beginning to see physical disruptions in oil supplies amid the persisting geopolitical conflict in West Asia.

-- BERNAMA-YONHAP