How Bad Is the Energy Crisis in Asia - Expert Analysis of The Impacted Countries

Asia is facing a major energy crunch as China and Pakistan are suffering from dwindling energy supplies. China’s natural gas supply is in shortage resulting from the country’s increased spending to control the COVID-19 outbreak which has weakened the government’s budget. Additionally, natural gas prices have drastically risen due to the cold weather, with gas shortages concentrated in Northern China. Pakistan is also struggling with severe power outages and faced a massive blackout that affected over 200M people on January 23rd. With Pakistan being overly dependent on imported natural gas, it has been unsuccessful in procuring LNG spot cargoes due to high global prices. The country’s LNG bill grew 91% YoY in 2022 to $4.98 billion.