How a Jet Fuel Refinery Is Scrambling After the Iran War Oil Shock

The faint smell of gas hangs over a laboratory at South Korea’s biggest refinery, where chemical analysts are working overtime trying to find ways to wean the sprawling facility off crude oil from the Persian Gulf.

South Korea has long been a top global exporter of jet fuel, but the conflict in the Middle East is forcing its oil refineries to rethink how they do business.

The vast labyrinth in the southern port city of Ulsan relies on Middle Eastern oil, which is around 60 percent of South Korea’s crude imports. Its flow was cut off when the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran led to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, delivering what refinery officials called the most severe supply shock in its history.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/world/asia/iran-war-korea-jet-fuel.html