Jamaine Punzalan

Motorists queue for fuel at a gas station in Pasig City on October 10, 2022. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File

Article (news)

FUEL PRICE HIKE

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/177500713739720221010-oil-price-hike-MD--12.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Motorists queue for fuel at a gas station in Pasig City on October 10, 2022. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File</span></span></span></div><p>Asian nations are facing a major energy crisis as a result of the Iran war, with a sharp fall in crude shipments and few alternatives, global maritime analytics firm Kpler told AFP on Tuesday.</p><p>&quot;We think Asia will, for now, be the ones suffering the most,&quot; Kpler president Jean Maynier told AFP in an interview at the company&#x27;s offices in Singapore.</p><p>The war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, saw Tehran effectively halt traffic through Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world&#x27;s crude supplies and a substantial amount of gas normally run.</p><p>This has sent shockwaves across global energy markets, leading to price hikes for consumers worldwide.</p><p>Maynier said Asia did not have enough energy resources of its own to fill the gap &quot;in China... in big countries like the Philippines or Indonesia. So it&#x27;s a real energy crisis.&quot;</p><p>The impact of the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already led governments to take exceptional measures, like the Philippines which has declared a national energy emergency, Maynier noted.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s really bad for Asia and we are not optimistic if the event continues,&quot; he said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;NO CRUDE&#x27; </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>&quot;There is almost no crude oil arriving&quot; in Asia currently, and no viable alternatives to energy imports from the Middle East while &quot;inventories are being depleted&quot;, Maynier said.</p><p>He said that while the attack on Iran had been anticipated, its timing and the duration of the war that has ensued were surprising.</p><p>&quot;What is surprising is the length of this event and, especially in Asia, the crisis that we have now with energy.&quot;</p><p>Brussels-based Kpler, which was founded in 2014 and owns the MarineTraffic website, is considered one of the foremost data analytics and ship-tracking agencies in the world.</p><p>It has been keeping a close eye on the Strait of Hormuz since the attack on Iran.</p><p>Iranian military officials have claimed to control the waterway and attack vessels from &quot;hostile&quot; nations, but Kpler said some are risking the trip.</p><p>Seventeen commodities vessels crossed the the strait over the weekend, 12 of them on Saturday, making it one of the busiest days for crossings since March 1, according to Kpler.</p><p>As of 1700 GMT on Monday, commodities vessels had made just 196 crossings of the waterway this month, a huge decrease from before the war.</p><p>Of those, 120 were by oil tankers and gas carriers and most were travelling east out of the strait.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1qUudNF0gr4?&amp;pp=0gcJCdkKAYcqIYzv&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;DARK VESSELS&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Kpler, which provides real-time data for close to 1,000 companies, uses satellites, drones and other tools to track ships, said Maynier.</p><p>&quot;All of this combined, and the selection of data sets that we collect from different partnerships help us to really understand what&#x27;s happening&quot; including when ships &quot;go dark&quot;, he added.</p><p>A &quot;dark&quot; vessel -- usually a tanker or cargo carrier -- deliberately disables or manipulates transponders in a bid to go undetected by public tracking systems like Kpler&#x27;s MarineTraffic.</p><p>&quot;Dark vessels try to switch off their (tracking) device and try to escape monitoring, usually because they are involved in smuggling or trying to export sanctioned cargoes,&quot; Maynier said.</p><p>Using satellite images, shore-based antennae, data and other sources, Kpler aims to reconstruct the trajectory of a vessel that has &quot;gone dark,&quot; he added.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s always hard to be 100 percent, but we can detect more than 90 percent of what&#x27;s happening in real time.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/3/30/oil-prices-jump-again-as-march-ends-1640">Oil prices jump again as March ends</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/3/30/doe-ph-s-current-fuel-inventory-good-for-50-94-days-2223">DOE: PH’s current fuel inventory good for 50.94 days </a></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/86enYVZqmpI?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Asian nations are facing a major energy crisis as a result of the Iran war, with a sharp fall in crude shipments and few alternatives, global maritime analytics firm Kpler told AFP on Tuesday.</p>

Asian nations are facing a major energy crisis as a result of the Iran war, with a sharp fall in crude shipments and few alternatives, global maritime analytics firm Kpler told AFP on Tuesday.

Asia to be hit hardest by Iran war energy crisis: Kpler

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Asia to be hit hardest by Iran war energy crisis: Kpler

Agence France-Presse

Published April 01, 2026 09:35 AM PHT

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