Asia Hopes U.S. Midterm Results Will Ease Energy Crisis

OilPrice.com · Charles Kennedy · 2026-11-05 23:00 UTC

Democratic victories in the U.S. midterms have raised hopes for an end to the Iran war and Asia's severe energy crisis.

Asian countries that depend on oil and gas imports for their energy security are hoping that the results of the U.S. midterms will lead to an end to the war in the Middle East and, consequently, an end to the severe fuel crisis Asian countries are experiencing. The hopes may be premature, however. Trump is still president, and Democrats are no fans of Iran.

Asia has been the hardest-hit by the fallout of the U.S. and Israel offensive against Iran that began on February 28. For geographical reasons, the Middle East is the top supplier of hydrocarbons to Asia. With that supplier largely gone for an extended period of time, Asian countries were scrambling to secure alternatives—at higher prices.

This brought inflation and boosted government spending to try and shield the economy from the worst of the fallout. Last month, the World Bank warned that, essentially, Asia was running out of money because of the energy crisis. “Subsidies have been by far the most common policy response [to the crisis] among emerging and developing economies,” the World Bank said, adding that “Countries with substantial subsidies in place generally have had smaller increases in retail gasoline prices than non-subsidizers, but this relationship weakened considerably for headline inflation.”

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