South Korea will release 22.46 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves in the next three months.

The South Korean government and the ruling Democratic Party held a meeting on the 16th, agreeing to release a total of 22.46 million barrels of strategic oil reserves over the next three months to alleviate the rise in oil prices caused by tensions in the Middle East. The Democratic Party members of the National Assembly, along with officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economy, and the Financial Services Commission, held a special working group meeting that day to discuss measures to stabilize oil prices and energy supply. Participants agreed to gradually release the 22.46 million barrels of strategic oil reserves to the market over the next three months, with detailed plans to be announced later this week. This plan is part of the International Energy Agency's release of oil reserves. On the 11th of this month, the 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels of strategic oil reserves, with South Korea accounting for 5.6% of the released amount. The meeting also decided that the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will raise the country's energy crisis alert level by one level this week, from the lowest level of "watch" to "be careful." In addition, the Democratic Party and the government agreed to submit the first supplementary budget proposal to the National Assembly by the end of this month to help address related social welfare issues.