Supply and demand

South Korea’s refining companies import crude petroleum, and refine it into petroleum products and feedstock for the petrochemical industry, both for domestic consumption and exports.

In 2021, more than 2.6 million b/d of crude petroleum was imported. Of this, 52% came from the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) countries, 12% from the U.S., and 6% each came from Iraq and the Russian Federation.

Data from the Korea Petroleum Association shows that gasoline production in 2020 was 143.05 million barrels, while consumption was 80.97 million barrels. The figure below shows the production and consumption of gasoline in South Korea in 2014-2020.