The South Korean government has implemented temporary price caps on petroleum products supplied by oil refineries to gas stations and distributors, effective Friday midnight, according to a news release by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the same day.
The maximum wholesale supply prices are set at KRW 1,724 per liter ($1.15) for regular gasoline (typically 91-94 RON), KRW 1,713 per liter for automotive diesel and KRW 1,320 per liter for kerosene.
These are lower than the average supply prices reported by refineries on March 11, with gasoline at 6% lower, diesel at 11.3% lower and kerosene at around 24% lower.
The latest measure will be effective for two weeks until March 26, as Seoul seeks to mitigate the rapid fluctuations in oil prices amid a global supply crisis triggered by the escalating conflict in the Middle East Gulf region.
The price caps will be adjusted on March 27 to reflect domestic and international price conditions, when the international petroleum product price increase rate will be determined using the price index posted on the state-owned Korea National Oil Corporation's website, said the Ministry.
South Korea is home to five oil refineries -- GS Caltex's 730,000b/d refinery in Yeosu, S-Oil's 669,000b/d Onsan Refinery, the 561,000b/d Hyundai Oilbank Refinery in Daesan, SK Energy's 840,000b/d refinery in Ulsan and SK Incheon Petrochem's 275,000 b/d refinery in Incheon.
Refineries in the country will continue to fulfill their term contract obligations to overseas buyers of petroleum oil products, but will likely suspend the sales of spot petroleum exports to prioritize domestic market needs, said traders.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Thomas Cho, tcho@opisnet.com; Editing by Mei-Hwen Wong, mwong@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-13-26 0408ET
