Hormuz shut and East Asia went straight for the reserves. Japan's biggest drawdown ever, a record 22.46M bbl pledge from Korea, 400M from the IEA – more than its five previous rescues combined. China stopped buying and sat on 1.24B bbl. Now it has to buy it all back. pic.twitter.com/wajcSqq1NT
— Data Driven Stocks (@stockdatamarket) July 16, 2026
East Asia shows heavy dependence on Strait for oil flow.