Use the stairs, work from home: Asia is already making big changes as oil prices spike

The fallout of the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran and the subsequent effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has reached Asia with authorities from New Delhi to Manila implementing emergency measures to shield consumers from the mounting shortages and surging global oil prices.

HONG KONG — The fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is being felt sharply in Asia, with authorities from New Delhi to Manila implementing emergency measures to shield consumers from mounting shortages and surging oil prices.

On Friday, people in Nepal lined up at gas-filling stations, carrying their empty, red cooking-gas cylinders as the country’s main oil company said it would only fill them halfway with LPG, or liquefied petroleum gas, as it tries to make stocks last longer.

Neighboring India, which is the world’s second-largest importer of LPG after China, is grappling with panic-buying among its own citizens amid wild swings in the price of international Brent crude oil, which as of early Friday was above $100 a barrel.

The unease highlights just how much a region dependent on oil from Gulf nations is affected by the Iran war, which the International Energy Agency says has created the “largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.”

Unlike the U.S. or Europe, which have more diverse sources of oil, Asia relies heavily on imports that pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route along southern Iran that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil.