Asian economies are moving to store more oil and gas closer to home after six months of disruption around the Strait of Hormuz turned the Iran crisis into a long-term energy security problem.
The shift marks a new phase in the crisis. The immediate fear in February and March was a sudden supply shock. Now, governments and companies are treating the Hormuz disruption as something that could reshape infrastructure, shipping routes and strategic reserves well beyond this week’s fighting.
Al Jazeera reported Thursday that Asian countries hit by the war’s energy fallout are now pursuing more durable fixes, including strategic stockpiles, storage deals with Gulf suppliers and infrastructure that reduces exposure to a single maritime chokepoint. The Strait of Hormuz normally carries a major share of Gulf oil and liquefied natural gas exports, but Iranian attacks and a U.S. naval blockade have left traffic sharply constrained during the war.
That matters because the region is deeply exposed to Gulf energy. Japan, South Korea, India, China and Southeast Asian economies all depend on steady seaborne fuel flows. When Hormuz traffic became unreliable, several governments imposed conservation steps, adjusted fuel policy and leaned on reserves to prevent shortages from turning into domestic economic crises.
Japan And Southeast Asia Push For Bigger Buffers
Japan is one of the clearest examples. Al Jazeera reported that Tokyo’s $10 billion POWERR Asia initiative is designed to help Southeast Asian economies buy oil and petroleum products while building longer-term strategic stockpiles. Japan has weathered the crisis better than many importers because it entered the war with one of the world’s largest oil reserves.
Enerdata reported this week that Japan has also unveiled an energy resilience plan after the Iran war exposed how heavily it depends on Middle Eastern oil. The plan includes support for pipeline projects that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, new national naphtha reserves and broader investment in nuclear power and renewables. Enerdata said Japan released 80 million barrels from strategic reserves in March, equal to about 45 days of supply, to soften the impact of the disruption.
The pressure is broader than Japan. Al Jazeera cited Vietnam’s limited national reserves at the start of the war, Thailand’s public and private stocks, and a Philippine push for a 60-day government-held reserve. The common thread is blunt: Asian governments do not want the next Hormuz shutdown to leave them scrambling for emergency measures.
Shipping Companies Still See Hormuz Risk
The storage push is also being driven by ship operators that do not see the waterway returning to normal quickly. Bloomberg, in a report carried by gCaptain, quoted Mitsui OSK Lines Chief Executive Jotaro Tamura as saying it is difficult to see Hormuz operations resuming “in any form by the end of the year” under current conditions.
That is a major warning from a company tied directly to Japan’s energy lifeline. Bloomberg reported that Japanese shipowners have largely avoided the region after moving vessels out of the Gulf earlier in the war, while Japanese refiners have sought alternative supplies from the United States and other routes. Mitsui OSK had previously expected a phased return from October, but that timeline now appears likely to slip.
For shipping companies, the issue is not just whether one vessel can pass safely on one day. Tamura said regular transits would require confidence that safe passage could be sustained across multiple voyages. That is exactly the kind of uncertainty that makes fuel storage more valuable.
India, South Korea And China Are Adjusting Too
India has also become a test case for resilience. The Economic Times reported that before the crisis, about 45% of India’s crude imports and 60% of its LPG moved through Hormuz. It said India expanded crude sourcing over the years, built refinery flexibility and relied on reserves and regulation to avoid visible consumer disruption during the shock.
Al Jazeera reported that India had roughly 74 days of oil stocks as of May and that state-owned ONGC plans to build a new 1.75-million-metric-ton reserve in southern India. New Delhi is also considering storing some strategic reserves at Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, outside the Hormuz bottleneck.
South Korea is weighing a reserve expansion as well, according to Al Jazeera, while China’s latest energy planning includes more pipelines and expanded LNG storage. Those moves were not all created by the Iran war, but the crisis has made the logic harder to ignore.
The strategic lesson is simple. The Iran crisis is no longer just about missiles, mines and sanctions. It is forcing Asia’s biggest energy importers to rethink where fuel is stored, how ships move, and how long economies can keep running when one narrow waterway becomes a battlefield.
Sources
- Al Jazeera: “Asia looks to store oil, gas closer to home after Strait of Hormuz crisis”
- Bloomberg via gCaptain: “Japan’s Mitsui OSK Sees Risk to Hormuz Shipping Through Year-End”
- Enerdata: “Japan unveils energy resilience plan as 96% of oil imports come from Middle East”
- The Economic Times EnergyWorld: “India’s oil industry weathers Hormuz disruption with strategic planning and supply resilience”