Jakarta (VNA) – Southeast Asia is set to see a warmer-than-usual early summer, potentially raising power demand and straining grids at a time when the Middle East conflict has tightened energy supplies in the region.
Across most of maritime and mainland Southeast Asia, home to more than half a billion people, temperatures will be above average for the March–May period, according to the latest seasonal outlook published by the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre.
The forecast comes as the conflict between the US – Israeli coalition and Iran upends transport and output across the Middle East, sending energy prices soaring. A prolonged disruption would threaten fossil-fuel reliant Southeast Asia’s power generation into April and May, when the mercury can climb to sweltering levels.
There is an 80%–100% chance of above-normal temperatures across Indonesia and Malaysia, according to the ASMC projection for the three-month period.
The unseasonal heat is likely to first set in over those two countries, and then expected to expand to much of mainland Southeast Asia in the following two months. Swathes of Thailand and northern Vietnam are also set to bake in the heat, the centre said.
Gas importers in some parts of ASEAN are already dipping into the spot market for liquefied natural gas cargoes after major supplier Qatar halted its largest export facility last week due to the war./.
