Philippines lands first Iranian crude since Hormuz blockade as Asia turns to Russia and coal

Philippines lands first Iranian crude since Hormuz blockade as Asia turns to Russia and coal The Philippines' first Iranian crude cargo since the Hormuz blockade underscores how far Asian importers will reach as the Gulf war keeps fuel and LNG supplies tight. A Suezmax tanker carrying as much as 1m barrels of Iranian crude reached the Philippines' Bataan refinery, the country's first Iranian cargo since the Strait of Hormuz blockade, Reuters reported on Friday (2026-05-29), citing tanker-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa. The vessel left Iran's Kharg Island in late March and transferred its cargo ship-to-ship offshore Singapore before final delivery.⁶ The cargo is a marker of how far Asian buyers will go to keep refineries fed. The Philippines sourced 98% of its oil from the Middle East before the war and declared a national energy emergency in mid-March.⁶ More than 90% of its energy imports arrive through the Gulf, and roughly 80% of the oil and 90% of the gas that normally transit Hormuz are bound for Asia, which leaves the region badly exposed when the strait is contested.⁴ That exposure is not easing. A hundred days into the war (2026-06-06), industry players told Channel NewsAsia the fallout from disrupted feedstock supplies would likely persist beyond six months even if tensions cool, with some warning of one to two years before recovery.⁷ The clearest strain is in gas. Spot LNG prices roughly doubled and Asian LNG imports fell sharply, the biggest drop on record, as Hormuz disruption choked cargoes, energynewsbeat.com reported.³ Japan's trade ministry suspended for a year, from April 2026 to March 2027, the 50% capacity-factor cap on inefficient coal plants, freeing utilities to run older units harder. Coal already supplies about 29% of Japan's power, and the policy is expected to save around 0.7 billion cubic metres of LNG.³ Others followed the same path. South Korea lifted the 80% capacity limit on coal plants and delayed the retirement of three units totalling 1.5 GW, while Taiwan restarted two coal-fired units at Mailiao and readied the 2.1 GW Hsinta backup plant for at least three months.³ JKM Asian LNG spot trades at $15.31 as of 2026-06-21, with physical Newcastle coal at $126.15. The cost is landing on governments. Seoul has prepared an extra budget of 26.2 trillion won, about $17.7bn, to cushion the economy.² President Lee Jae Myung warned of an economic emergency in the week of 2026-05-18, in a country that depends on the Middle East for roughly 70% of its crude.¹ In India, jet fuel prices would have risen by more than 100%, though New Delhi capped the increase for domestic airlines at 25%.¹ The disruption has handed Russia and China an opening, and both are quietly stepping in.⁵ Kirill Dmitriev, head of a Russian state investment fund, said in March that Russia's voice in the global economy grows louder when oil tops $100 a barrel.⁵ Asian appetite for discounted Russian crude has held, and nuclear power is one area where Moscow hopes to gain ground as importers reassess energy sovereignty and diversification.⁸ Yet the early-war premium has drained out of the oil tape. ICE Brent crude front-month sits at $80.38 as of 2026-06-21, with Dubai at $81.29 and Urals at $61.19, all well below the triple-digit crude that animated Dmitriev's boast.⁵ The supply scramble is real, but the price action says traders are betting barrels reroute rather than vanish, leaning on inventory buffers and the bet that Gulf flows eventually reopen. The durability of these workarounds is the live risk. Iranian and Russian barrels move under sanctions exposure, a faster Hormuz reflow would reprice Asian LNG hard, and Seoul's emergency spending and the regional coal restarts are stopgaps, not lasting supply. Watch whether more Iranian cargoes follow the Bataan delivery, and whether Japan and South Korea extend their coal waivers past winter.^6,3