The South Korean government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea held a meeting on March 16 and agreed to release a total of 22.46 million barrels of strategic oil reserves over the next three months to ease oil price increases triggered by tensions in the Middle East.

Members of the Democratic Party of Korea and officials from government departments such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Financial Services Commission held a special working group meeting that day to discuss countermeasures to stabilize oil prices and energy supply. Participants agreed to gradually release 22.46 million barrels of strategic oil reserves to the market over the next three months, with the specific plan to be announced later this week. This plan is part of the International Energy Agency's action to release oil reserves. On March 11, the 32 member states of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels of strategic oil reserves, with South Korea's release accounting for 5.6%.

The meeting also decided that South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will raise the country's energy crisis warning level by one level this week, from the lowest level of "attention" among the four levels to "caution." In addition, the Democratic Party of Korea and the government agreed to submit the first supplementary budget for this year to the National Assembly by the end of this month to help address related livelihood issues.

After the meeting, Ahn Doo-jung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters that South Korea's current oil reserves can last for 208 days, and liquefied natural gas reserves can last for 9 days. He stated that the South Korean government has decided to lift the regulation that coal-fired power plants' electricity generation should not exceed 80% of their installed capacity starting from March 16. Additionally, maintenance work on six nuclear reactors will be completed by mid-May, thereby increasing the operating rate of nuclear power plants from the current less than 70% to about 80%.

According to data from the Korea International Trade Association, South Korea relies almost entirely on imports for its energy, with about 70% of its oil and about 20% of its liquefied natural gas coming from the Middle East. In response to continuous oil price increases, the South Korean government implemented an "oil price cap system" starting March 13, setting price caps on petroleum products supplied by refining companies to gas stations and distributors. This is the first time since the government liberalized oil prices in 1997 that it has set oil price caps based on relevant provisions of the Petroleum Business Act.