DHAKA: The oil price spike caused by the conflict in the Middle East has sparked unrest in Bangladesh and exasperation at petrol pumps around Asia, where many economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel imports.
Even as governments move to limit the impact on fuel prices, lines have formed at petrol stations in countries including Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines, although the situation remains stable elsewhere.
In Bangladesh – which imports 95 per cent of its oil and petrol needs – the military has been deployed at major oil depots, as police patrol in and around filling stations.
“We haven’t received supply from the depot, but the bike riders weren’t convinced and vandalised the station,” said petrol station worker Ashrafuzzaman Dulal told AFP, describing violence on Sunday (March 8).
On March 10, his station, Shahjahan Traders, one of the oldest in the capital Dhaka, had hung a banner apologising because its stock had run out.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people has started fuel rationing, sent students home and scrapped celebratory light displays over the energy crunch.
One man was killed on the night of March 7 in the southern Bangladeshi district of Jhenaidah after an altercation over refuelling with staff.
Following the 25-year-old’s death, angry crowds torched three buses and vandalised a filling station, police said.
‘So, so angry’
On March 10, queues stretched for 1.5km through Dhaka’s city centre.
“My boss left the car here and took a rickshaw to reach his destination,” Kamrul Hasan, who was waiting in a vehicle almost at the end of the queue, told AFP.
Filling station worker Akhtar Hossain said he had not stopped for hours.
“Even during the Gulf War, we didn’t experience this sort of rush,” Hossain told AFP.
Oil prices fell on March 10 after US President Donald Trump said the US-Israel attacks on Iran could end “very soon”.
The previous day, the price of benchmark crude had rocketed past US$100 a barrel – its highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The market instability came as Iran targeted the crude-rich Gulf with missile and drone barrages.
Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz – a key Gulf waterway through which a fifth of global crude passes – has also all but halted since the conflict broke out.
Thousands of motorbike riders queued for fuel on March 10 in Vietnam, where prices for unleaded petrol have surged more than 20 per cent.
Vietnam has so far avoided mass shortages, with the government scraping duties on many imported petroleum products.
A 57-year-old who gave his name as Tuan told AFP at a Hanoi petrol station that he was “so, so angry”.
“I have been waiting in line for almost one hour. Then my turn came, and they said their system is down,” he said as dozens of drivers waited but others gave up.
Myanmar price spike
Vehicles also lined up in scorching heat at Philippine petrol stations this week, as officials warned against hoarding fuel, with similar scenes unfolding in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Gas station attendant in Metro Manila Enrico Guda said the station had double its usual daily workload as people rushed to fuel up before prices jumped.
In Myanmar, which imports 90 per cent of its fuel oil and has long suffered from a fragile energy supply chain owing to the conflict consuming the country, traffic curbs are in place.
From March 7, half of private vehicles have been ordered off the roads each day to preserve oil stocks.
“Some drivers depend on their vehicles for work and survival... the new system has made it harder for them to run their businesses,” said car rental business owner Hla Htay, 56.
In the Myanmar frontier town of Tachileik, an AFP reporter saw signs cross-border supplies from Thailand had been cut – with some petrol stations shut last week after an up-to threefold price spike the day before.
In several other Asian countries, from Japan to Indonesia, as well as China, India and Afghanistan, panic appears not yet to have hit, apart from a few sporadic queues for petrol.
“I used to fill up regularly once a week, but now I try to fill up whenever I find a cheaper gas station,” South Korean businessman Lee In-tae, 42, told AFP in Seoul. - AFP
