Mideast Oil Loses Ground in South Korea

摘要

Mideast crude oil lost considerable market share in South Korea last year, with Saudi crude leading the decline. Instead, South Korea — one of the world's largest crude importers — relied more heavily on long-haul arbitrage crudes. The trend is in stark contrast with China, which increased its reliance on Mideast crude last year at the expense of arbitrage crudes. South Korean imports of Mideast crude plunged by 272,000 b/d from 2020 to 1.57 million b/d in 2021, according to data from Korea National Oil Corp.