South Korea Set to Enforce Fuel Rationing Amid Middle East Crisis
Under the license plate-based rationing system, roughly 1.5 million government vehicles will be divided into five groups according to the final digit of their registration numbers, with each group barred from road use on a designated weekday. Authorities say tighter compliance monitoring will back the crackdown — a sharp departure from the system's previously relaxed enforcement. Electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles remain exempt.
The measure is projected to trim national crude consumption by approximately 3,000 barrels per day — a meaningful, if modest, relief valve for a country that burns through around 2.8 million barrels daily, nearly half of which feeds its transportation sector.
Seoul is simultaneously expanding its energy response on multiple fronts. The government plans to relax restrictions on coal-fired power plants on low-pollution days, while fast-tracking the restart of five nuclear reactors currently offline for maintenance — both moves designed to reduce dependence on liquefied natural gas (LNG), supplies of which have been disrupted by the ongoing Middle East conflict.
On the diplomatic front, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun held a phone call Tuesday with Omani counterpart Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, appealing for Muscat's assistance in securing LNG and crude oil supplies. The outreach follows a separate call Monday in which Cho pressed Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to guarantee unimpeded passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
That waterway — through which approximately 20 million barrels of oil flow daily under normal conditions — has been effectively strangled since early March, driving up shipping costs and pushing global energy prices sharply higher.
The broader crisis stems from the joint US-Israeli military offensive against Iran that began February 28, a campaign that has so far claimed more than 1,340 lives, among them then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Tehran has since retaliated with sustained drone and missile strikes against Israel and Gulf states hosting US military assets, with no resolution in sight.
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