UAE Gas Field Set Ablaze as Iran Strikes Hit Energy Supplies - Bloomberg
The five sectors taking the hardest hit:
Aviation, road freight, logistics, construction, and agriculture are in the direct firing line — diesel is the fuel that powers all of them. But this crisis has a nastier second layer.
Naphtha and LPG supply plunging is forcing petrochemical plants to cut polymer production, and Gulf refining capacity has already shut down due to attacks — running elsewhere is increasingly constrained by feedstock availability.
Fertiliser, aluminium, plastics, and industrial gases have all surged in price — and helium has doubled, which matters because it is a critical input for semiconductor fabrication, not just party balloons.
For APAC specifically, the exposure is concentrated:
About 84% of crude oil and 83% of LNG that passed through Hormuz in 2024 were bound for Asia — China, India, Japan, and South Korea, accounting for nearly 70% of oil shipments alone.
UN/ESCAP estimates oil prices up ~45% and gas up ~55% since late February, with regional inflation potentially rising to 4.6% in 2026 from 3.5% in 2025.
Singapore's uncomfortable position: gas-dependent power grid, petrochemical cluster on Jurong Island with live force majeure risk, 90%+ food import dependency — and a bunkering hub that is simultaneously exposed and, for the right operators, opportunistic.
The dark underbelly is the stagflation trap: higher oil prices pushing up inflation creates pressure for fiscal support, but government budgets are already stretched — and this crisis arrives so soon after Covid, 2022 energy shock, and other recent hits.
The above is compiled with the help of an LLM.
My investing muse
This is a developing situation. Should more of the infrastructure be damaged, we can expect more disruptions in current production, capacity and delayed deliveries. The cost of life is likely to go up due to the increase in energy costs.
More countries are looking to ration energy and source alternatives.
Let us monitor closely.
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