South Korea, Japan agree to share oil reserves

South Korea and Japan signed a deal to cooperate in sharing oil reserves, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said Monday, paving the way for the two oil importers to jointly deal with any crisis.

The strategic alliance agreement between state-run Korea National Oil Corp. and government-funded Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. allows the two neighbors to cooperate in tapping into each other’s oil reserves in case of a supply shortage, the ministry said.
South Korea and Japan are both resource poor and import virtually all of their energy needs.

The two sides also agreed to conduct research on joint oil stockpiling. They have maintained cooperative relations through an annual meeting and shared information on oil stockpiling since 2004, when they signed an a memorandum of understanding, the ministry said.

South Korea holds 76 million barrels of oil reserves, and Japan holds 320 million barrels of emergency national oil reserves, according to the state-run Korea National Oil Corp.

International Herald Tribune