India and other Asian economies are the world's most dependent countries on oil and gas from the Middle East, making them vulnerable if the widening conflict following Israeli and US attacks on Iran causes prolonged supply disruptions.
Following is a look at imports and stockpiles for major buyers of Middle Eastern oil and gas.
India:
The share of Middle Eastern oil in India's crude imports rose to the highest since late 2022 to 55 per cent in January or about 2.74 million barrels per day as refiners reduced their intake of Russian oil.
India has capacity for crude and refined fuel inventory, including that held by companies and in strategic petroleum reserves, to meet demand for about 74 days, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told lawmakers last month.
However, refining sources told Reuters that India's current crude and refined fuel inventory could last for about 20 to 25 days.
India, the fourth-largest LNG importer, buys about two-thirds of its supply from Qatar, the UAE and Oman, according to Kpler data.
China:
China is the world's largest crude importer and the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, although record amounts of crude in floating storage and strategic stockpiles limit the near-term risk of shortages.
Roughly half of China's oil imports come from the Middle East.
The country purchased an average of 1.38 million barrels per day of Iranian oil last year, according to Kpler, or about 13 per cent of all its seaborne imports. Another 42 million barrels of Iranian crude was stored on tankers in Asia in late January.
China has also spent years growing its strategic reserves, building new storage sites and buying crude from a global market in surplus. Beijing closely guards the size of reserves, but analysts estimate it at around 900 million barrels, or just under three months of imports.
China is also the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas, roughly a third of which comes from the Middle East.
Japan:
Japan sources around 95 per cent of its oil imports from the Middle East, of which some 70 per cent passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Japan imported 2.8 million barrels of oil per day in January, of which 1.6 million bpd came from Saudi Arabia with supply also from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.
Japan holds emergency oil reserves equivalent to 254 days of consumption.
Japan, the second-largest liquefied natural gas importer, sources 40 per cent of its supply from Australia, or 25.8 million tonnes last year. Japan's LNG supplies from the Middle East - Qatar, Oman and the UAE - made up 11 per cent of its imports.
Japanese companies have LNG inventory equivalent to about three weeks of consumption, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Monday.
Japan also trades around 40 million tonnes of LNG annually and could redirect some of that back home in case of emergency.
South Korea:
South Korea, which relies almost totally on imports for its energy, buys around 70 per cent of its oil and 20 per cent of its LNG from the Middle East, according to Korea International Trade Association data.
South Korea's Industry Ministry said in December the country's total government strategic petroleum reserve has reached 100 million barrels. The private sector holds an additional 95 million barrels in reserve.
A South Korean government official said on Monday the country's combined stockpile was sufficient to cover about 208 days of consumption.
On Sunday, the ministry said the country will seek to secure additional volumes from outside the Middle East if supply disruptions persist.
Europe:
The share of Middle East supply in Europe’s crude oil import mix is around five per cent, according to Kpler data. But Europe relies more heavily on the Middle East for fuel, with Kpler data showing the Middle East as Europe’s biggest supplier of middle distillates, including diesel and jet fuel.
United States:
The United States has dramatically lowered its dependence on oil from the Middle East in recent years as it has become the world's largest oil and gas producer. Last year, it bought less than 0.9 million bpd from gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, the Energy Information Administration says, compared to US demand of more than 20 million bpd.
The US banned purchases of oil from Iran following the 1979 hostage crisis. The US, the world's top exporter of LNG, imports almost no liquefied natural gas from the Middle East. Last year, it imported more LNG from Trinidad and Tobago than from Qatar, the only country in the Middle East it received LNG from.
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova in Tokyo, Joyce Lee in Seoul, Lewis Jackson and Sam Li in Beijing, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Emily Chow in Singapore; Timothy Gardner in Washington, Enes Tunagur in London; editing by Barbara Lewis and Aurora Ellis)
