Southeast Asia’s short-term solution to the global energy crunch? Russian crude.

The Middle East conflict, and Iran’s shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz, has thrown the world into its worst energy crisis in decades. Southeast Asia, which relies on the region for over half of its oil and LNG imports, has been particularly hard hit, with governments frantically looking for alternate sources of oil and gas.

The answer is coming from Russia, a one-time pariah that’s now receiving a steady flow of interest from Southeast Asian leaders desperate for crude oil that’s not stuck behind the blocked Strait of Hormuz.

On April 18, Malaysia joined a growing number of Southeast Asian nations hoping to tap Russia’s stocks of crude oil. Petronas, Malaysia’s national oil company, is set to negotiate for sufficient supplies of oil for domestic use. The move marks the region’s most significant return to Russian oil since 2022, when the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of........

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