Korea to triple oil imports, secure more LNG from Canada amid energy shock in Freight News 05/06/2026 South Korea and Canada have agreed to deepen their partnership in energy and critical minerals as war in Iran and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz reshape global supply chains. Under the agreement, Seoul plans to more than triple Canadian crude oil imports while securing additional LNG supplies through expanded investment in Canadian LNG projects. The agreement was reached Tuesday at a Korea-Canada forum on energy, resources and supply-chain cooperation in Ottawa, jointly hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and Canada’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. The forum was held during Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik’s trip to Canada from Monday to Tuesday as a special envoy for strategic economic cooperation, marking his second visit to the country following a trip in late January. Seoul’s industry ministry underscored the importance of the partnership at a time when “the energy and resource supply-chain environment is being reshaped by prolonged instability in the Middle East and intensifying competition over critical mineral supply chains.” “In this context, Korea and Canada, which are geopolitically stable and share common values, are being regarded as each other’s best strategic partners,” the ministry said in a press statement. Based on this shared recognition, the two countries agreed to expand their resource cooperation from a buyer-supplier structure into an integrated supply-chain partnership combining technology and capital.” Korea to become Canada’s third-largest oil importer As the key outcome of the forum, the ministry said Korea will expand its imports of Canadian crude oil from 4.88 million barrels in 2025 to as much as 16 million barrels in 2026, an increase of approximately 3.3 times. The ministry said Seoul would explore ways to increase imports to as much as 20 million barrels annually. “In this case, K