Saudi Arabia and UAE back Japan-led Southeast Asian oil stockpiling initiative at Manila ministerial meeting
Saudi Arabia and the UAE did something unusual on Thursday. They showed up to a special session of the Asia Zero Emission Community in Manila — a forum they don’t actually belong to. Ministers from AZEC’s 11 partner nations, including Japan, Indonesia, and Australia, were there to talk cooperative oil purchasing and strategic stockpiling across Southeast Asia. Japan’s State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Takagi Kei, confirmed both Gulf states said they’re willing to help strengthen the region’s oil reserves.
Saudi Arabia and UAE join AZEC oil security session in Manila
Their inclusion was deliberate, not accidental. AZEC was launched by Japan to push regional collaboration on energy transition and security — but Gulf producers aren’t among its 11 partners. Getting them in the room, even informally, signals something is shifting in how the region thinks about energy relationships.
Takagi was direct with reporters. “We will further deepen our cooperation to strengthen energy security,” he said. The ministers adopted AZEC’s ministerial work program, which commits participating countries to building oil stockpiling capacity and improving their ability to respond to future supply shocks. It’s a framework document — but one carrying real political weight.
Her comments echoed what many officials across the region are now saying openly: the old assumptions about supply reliability don’t hold anymore.
US-Iran war exposed Southeast Asia’s dependence on Persian Gulf oil
The urgency behind Thursday’s meeting traces back to late February, when the US-Iran war began and hit Asian energy markets almost immediately. Southeast Asia’s exposure was severe. And in hindsight, pretty predictable.
Before the conflict, more than half of the region’s crude imports came from Persian Gulf producers. Japan’s situation was even more concentrated — roughly 90% of its oil supply originated there, with most of it transiting the Strait of Hormuz. When that chokepoint closed, consequences moved fast: crude prices surged past $100 a barrel, severe shortages followed, and some refiners had to cut processing capacity while governments across the region moved to ration fuel.
The disruptions didn’t just strain household budgets. They exposed structural vulnerabilities that policymakers had long acknowledged but never really fixed.
Disruptions prompted Japan’s $10 billion support package and regional policy reassessment
Japan moved quickly once the scale of the crisis became clear. In April, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government announced $10 billion in financial support for Southeast Asian nations struggling with soaring crude prices and supply shortfalls — covering oil procurement assistance, storage infrastructure, and emergency reserves. It was a broad response designed to help the region absorb future shocks, and it reflected both solidarity and self-interest. Japan’s own deep dependence on Gulf oil meant it had as much to gain from regional stabilization as its neighbors did.
Philippines Energy Secretary Sharon Garin put it plainly at Thursday’s joint briefing with Takagi. “The recent disruptions in global energy markets, particularly at the critical choke point of the Strait of Hormuz, have reinforced the importance of strengthening our collective preparedness against energy supply shocks,” she said. Her comments echoed what many officials across the region are now saying openly: the old assumptions about supply reliability don’t hold anymore.
The crisis also pushed policymakers to rethink strategies they’d treated as settled. Emergency reserve policies, procurement diversification, regional coordination mechanisms — things that mostly existed on paper are now being treated as genuine priorities.
Proposed framework and ongoing vulnerabilities across the region
Even with Thursday’s commitments, the underlying vulnerabilities haven’t gone away. Oil reserves across much of ASEAN remain relatively thin, and with crude prices still above $100 a barrel, rebuilding stockpiles is expensive — that cost becomes a barrier to the very resilience governments are trying to build.
The proposed AZEC framework could help address that tension. One key element would let buying countries negotiate bilateral supply arrangements directly with Middle Eastern producers, potentially locking in more stable pricing and delivery terms than spot markets currently offer. Those deals wouldn’t be one-sided. Persian Gulf suppliers stand to benefit too — getting more of their crude closer to Asian customers through storage arrangements or long-term contracts gives them more reliable demand and less exposure to market volatility.
That kind of shared interest is what makes frameworks like this more likely to survive beyond the ministerial communiqué stage. Still, turning Thursday’s expressions of willingness into functioning agreements takes time. Bilateral negotiations are complex, storage infrastructure takes years to build, and political priorities shift. The commitment from Saudi Arabia and the UAE is meaningful, but it’s a starting point.
What the Manila meeting means for regional energy security
Thursday’s session brought together an unusual mix of countries around a shared problem. Gulf producers and Asian consumers signaled a new willingness to coordinate, and Japan’s $10 billion support package gave the initiative financial credibility that declarations alone couldn’t provide.
The immediate trigger was the US-Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz disruptions it caused. But the deeper issue — Southeast Asia’s structural dependence on Persian Gulf crude and the thin reserve buffers that leave the region exposed — predates the conflict by years. What’s changed is the political will to act on it. Whether that translates into durable infrastructure, funded stockpiles, and enforceable supply agreements is the real test still ahead.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.
