PHOTO: AFP/FILE

REUTERS, Tokyo/Colombo/Wellington

Indonesia’s leader visited Tokyo this week in Asia’s latest flurry of fuel bartering efforts to offset crippling shortages caused by conflict in the Middle ​East, a key source of regional energy supplies.

The race for alternatives has hotted up as China, the world’s second largest economy, imposed fuel export bans, while nations such as ‌South Korea and Thailand try to exploit the lifting of US sanctions on Russian energy as a stopgap move.

Matters are getting desperate for poorer nations as the Philippines became the first to declare a national energy emergency, Sri Lanka cut its work week to four days and rationed fuel, and Myanmar limited car drivers to alternate days.

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and the world’s fourth most populous country, Indonesia is also expected to announce curbs in coming days.

“To maintain rational economic ​relationships is of vital importance,” President Prabowo Subianto told Japanese business leaders in Tokyo after pacts signed on Monday covering long-term oil and gas and geothermal power projects.

“The geopolitical situation in ​the Middle East gives strategic uncertainty for the security of our energy.”

More immediately, Jakarta could strike a deal to beef up supplies of liquefied natural gas to Tokyo in exchange for liquefied petroleum gas, an essential cooking fuel, Djoko Siswanto, the head of oil and gas regulator SKK Migas, told Reuters on Monday.

While Prabowo and Japan’s Sanae Takaichi agreed ​to boost ties on energy security at a meeting on Tuesday, neither leader confirmed such a swap agreement.

Japan’s government-backed oil and gas producer Inpex is discussing a similar barter deal with India to swap LPG for ​naphtha and crude oil, according to an internal Japanese government document seen by Reuters.

Vietnam has also sought Japan’s help for energy supplies, it showed, while the Philippines said on Monday it had received diesel from Tokyo.

Japan’s trade minister stressed the importance of keeping up fuel supplies to Southeast Asian nations where it has supply chains, but declined to comment on specific deals.

Resource-poor Japan relies on the Middle East for about 95 percent of its oil and 11 of its imports ​of liquefied natural gas, though its energy stockpiles are among the world’s largest.

Australia’s position as a major energy producer and exporter should give it clout in talks with Asian partners for ​supplies of jet fuels that could soon run short, energy analysts said.

The government was engaging with major suppliers such as China, Singapore and South Korea, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said this month.

However, China has banned exports of refined ‌fuel, including jet fuel, to safeguard its economy from energy disruption.