OREANDA-NEWS. The storage space for leasing to foreign companies and traders has ended in the oil storage facilities of the Republic of Korea amid falling demand for oil products due to the coronavirus pandemic. This was reported on Tuesday by Bloomberg, citing a source.

According to him, the South Korean state oil corporation (Korea National Oil Corp., KNOC) leases space to their foreigners in their storage facilities of 30 million barrels of oil. Another 8 million barrels of oil can be placed in the storage facilities of Oilhub Korea Yeosu, a controlling stake in which belongs to the state corporation. Although part of leasing contracts expires in the second half of this year, the South Korean side plans to use the released resources for its own purposes or provide them to local fuel producers, the agency said.

The reason for this was a decrease in hydrocarbon consumption around the world and an increase in demand for oil storage services amid low oil prices. In the context of the pandemic, South Korean oil refineries requested authorities to access state storage facilities.