South Korean oil products demand to fall 1pc in 2020

Demand for South Korean oil products will fall by 1pc this year, reflecting economic weakness brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, state-owned think-tank Korea Energy Economics Institute (KEEI) said.

Such a decline would represent demand loss of more than 9mn bl, or 25,000 b/d, as South Korean use of oil products last year totalled nearly 933mn bl, according to data from state-owned oil company KNOC. The country is on track for a larger decline than predicted by KEEI for 2020, after a 3.2pc drop to 373mn bl or 6mn b/d in January-May from a year earlier.

Transportation accounted for most of the downturn. KEEI expects demand from the sector to decrease by 5.9pc on the year.

Demand for transportation products totalled nearly 113mn bl or 623,000 b/d in January-May, down by 11pc year to date.

South Korea consumed 65,000 b/d of jet fuel from January-May, down by 39pc from the same period in 2019, according to data from KNOC. The country's jet fuel consumption rose by 149.7pc from April to 58,800 b/d in May, but this was still lower by 44.8pc from a year earlier.

South Korea's total energy demand will drop by 1.4pc this year to around 299mn t of oil equivalent (toe), according to the KEEI, as natural gas gains 1pc and coal use slides by 7.7pc. Demand last year slipped by 1.3pc to 303.5mn toe, the first decline since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98.

By Tony Cox