Sri Lanka is introducing a shorter four-day working week to preserve its shrinking fuel and gas reserves, as the Middle East conflict continues to severely disrupt energy supplies in the region.
Countries across south Asia are facing crippling shortages of fuel and LPG gas, which are used for everything from home cooking to cremating bodies, as most supplies have been held up in the Gulf since the US and Israel began bombing Iran.
The strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route for most of south Asia’s oil and gas, has effectively been shut for two weeks as it has been blockaded by Iran in retaliation for the US and Israeli strikes.
All countries in the region import almost all their fuel and gas and most warned they only have enough supplies to keep the lights on for a few more weeks.
Bangladesh, fearful of running of out fuel to power the garment factories that are crucial to its economy, announced early Ramadan holidays for universities to save energy and has imposed scheduled power blackouts.
People queue up to refuel their motorbikes in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 10 March. Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistan, which relies on 85% of its energy coming through the strait of Hormuz, moved schools to remote online teaching this week and raised fuel prices in an attempt to stop hoarding.
Sri Lanka is among the countries cutting working hours to save fuel, which it mostly sources from the Middle East. From Wednesday, state institutions, as well as schools and universities, will operate only four days a week. Civil servants are being told to work from home where possible.
“We are also asking the private sector to follow suit and declare every Wednesday a holiday from now on,” Prabath Chandrakeerthi, commissioner general of essential services, told reporters after an emergency meeting chaired by the president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
In scenes reminiscent of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis four years ago, fuel rationing began on Sunday. Long lines formed outside petrol stations and motorists were limited to 15 litres of petrol or diesel a week, while public transport was allocated up to 200 litres.
Officials said the country’s petrol and diesel reserves would last nearly six weeks but warned that any disruption to fresh supplies could severely affect the island. They insisted that essential services, including hospitals, ports and emergency services will continue to operate as usual.
The government has said that a prolonged war in the Middle East, and a failure to secure the safe shipping of energy through the strait of Hormuz, could seriously undermine its efforts to emerge from its economic crisis of 2022.
At an emergency meeting on Monday, Dissanayake reportedly told senior officials: “We must prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.”
In India, where 60% of its LPG gas supplies come from Gulf states, long queues formed across the country for cooking gas canisters and many restaurants closed their doors or took slow-cooking dishes off the menus.
Hotels warned they would soon have to close and a major steel plant said it would have to shut down operations. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, sought to reassure people there was no LPG shortage and “no need to panic”.
Trinamool Congress party supporters carry cutouts of LPG cylinders at a rally in Kolkata on Monday to protest against higher prices and shortages. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
India claimed some diplomatic success over the weekend as two of its tankers, carrying critical supplies of gas, were able to successfully navigate through the strait on Saturday, which is likely to help ease distribution as they arrived in India on Monday.
Speaking to the Financial Times, India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said the Indian tankers had been allowed through the strait after direct negotiation with the Iranians. “I am at the moment engaged in talking to them and my talking has yielded some results,” he said.
