BANGKOK: The tremors from political upheaval in the Middle East are rippling through energy-thirsty
Asia, which has long struggled to kick its addiction to oil from the volatile region.
Every day millions of barrels of oil pass through the Indian Ocean from the Middle East to Asia, the world's
busiest route for supertankers, providing energy to fuel the region's rapid economic growth.
It's an intercontinental voyage that highlights the ever-increasing interdependence of the world economies
and explains why the fallout from unrest in the Middle East is having an impact thousands of miles
(kilometres) away.
Oil prices have skyrocketed on world markets on fears that uprisings in countries such as Egypt and Libya
could spread to major oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Algeria.
The effects are already being felt by motorists in Asia, which relies on the Middle East for the vast majority
of its oil imports.
Resource-poor Japan for example buys 90 percent of its crude from the Middle East, while Singapore gets
about 85 percent of its needs from the region and South Korea about 82 percent. But it is the developing
countries that might be the hardest hit by the price spike.
