Why Southeast Asian nations are vulnerable to the fuel crisis as Iran war rages on

Daniel Gech looks at prices on a board at a Sokimex petrol station in Phnom Penh and winces. Four weeks into the war in the Middle East, the ripple effects of a faraway conflict are beginning to threaten the Cambodian teenager’s ability to earn and learn.The 16-year-old hustles on his moped between his home and school, followed by an evening job and back. It now costs him an extra US$2 a day to fill up his tank – or US$14 a week – and the price is rising, a significant surge in a country where the average wage is just over US$10 a day.“The prices started to go up immediately after the war started,” he said, as he made a QR payment on Sunday morning for a litre of fuel that cost 5,400 Cambodian riel (US$1.34), 2,000 riel higher than before the war.“It’s too much already, and it’s getting worse each day.”Southeast Asia is dangerously exposed to the throttling of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, which has weaponised global energy supply in an asymmetrical response to the devastating military assaults by the US and Israel.The combatants have made shrill threats to target energy facilities across the Gulf as the war rages on into its fourth week. The price of Brent Crude has oscillated between US$100 and US$110 per barrel in recent weeks, or 20 per cent higher than before Israeli and American jets began bombing Iran on February 28.