Taiwan, Japan, and Korea import the vast majority of their fuel from that region. If any of those three countries run out of fuel, the impacts would be larger than if any single Western European country lost energy. The world as a whole depends on tech manufactured in this countries, and we're already in a pinch with AI slop companies buying up global supplies of components for the whole year. If LCD/OLED screen factories are shut down for even a few weeks, that will have massive rippling effects across the world. And if TSMC needs to turn off its factories, it will be absolutely disastrous.
Some countries are more prepared than others. Vietnam, who now handles a lot of mfg moved from China, has reserves measured in days. Yes, some countries have a couple months. I don't know the stats for nat gas though, and that could be better or worse.
Petrochemicals are a big part of the world economy. Energy is needed to get workers to work, factories to run, and ships to move.
This could slow goods production on par with covid. Forward looking financial markets which, by and large, failed to predict this will likely overreact as well. If the private credit bubble bursts coincident with market panic we could see a major financial crisis (maybe not GFC, but big).
It's a big price just to cover up the Epstein Files...
