South Korea has secured supplies of more than 270 million barrels of crude oil via routes unaffected by the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, AFP quotes a senior official as saying.

“I hereby report to the nation that visits to four countries have secured the import of 273m barrels of crude oil by the end of this year,” Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to the president, said.

The amount is sufficient for more than three months of South Korea’s oil needs, Kang said after he returned from a trip to Kazakhstan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Kang said around 60 per cent of South Korea’s crude oil imports last year transited through the waterway, which the US began blockading this week.