South Korea Energy

South Korea ranked the world’s seventh-largest energy-consuming nation in 2022 and gets around 97% of its energy from overseas sources.  As the world’s seventh-largest energy-consuming nation (2022), South Korean officials are actively pursuing ways to reduce energy consumption while shifting towards more environmentally friendly sources. U.S. companies have opportunities in providing energy solutions including energy related engineering services. 

South Korea’s Energy Master Plan aims to reduce Korea’s total energy consumption by 14.4% by 2030 and 18.6% by 2040. In support of this Master Plan the Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy (MOTIE) recently announced a “10th Basic Plan on Electricity Supply and Demand” (January 2023), which will focus South Korea’s 2030 energy mix towards greater use of clean energy (nuclear power 32.4%, coal 19.7%, LNG 22.5%, renewable energy 21.6%, hydrogen and ammonia 2.1%) while convert aging coal power plants to LNG power plants and change key industries with high greenhouse gas emissions to low-carbon structures to achieve carbon neutrality.

These changes present U.S. companies with compelling opportunities in engineering services, LNG exports, Liquid hydrogen and ammonia, project financing, and wind turbine systems.

U.S. energy and energy solutions companies are invited to contact Office.Seoul@trade.gov for further guidance.