Energy Lockdown: 9 Countries Are Rationing Power as Hormuz Stays Shut

The Strait of Hormuz has been partially closed for five weeks. The effects that analysts warned about in week one are now showing up in government emergency orders, fuel queues, and daily attacks on petrol stations. Nine countries have moved to formal energy rationing. The ones in the headlines are Pakistan and Bangladesh — but the list includes Germany, France, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.

This is not an abstraction anymore. It is a supply chain event affecting energy costs for every data center, manufacturer, and logistics operator in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Pakistan: Four-Day Work Week, Free Buses, Petrol Up 20% in One Week

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced emergency austerity measures after the Hormuz disruption placed Pakistan's economy "under direct threat." The specific measures:

Four-day work week for government offices — Thursday and Friday suspended to reduce commuting fuel consumption. This affects 500,000+ federal employees across Islamabad and provincial capitals.

Free public transport in Islamabad and Punjab for 30 days — buses, metro services, and rickshaws operating at zero fare to push commuters off motorcycles and private vehicles, which burn petrol. The policy costs the government roughly $40M per month and is considered worth it against the alternative of petrol rationing.

Petrol at $1.15/litre, diesel at $1.20/litre — a 20% jump in a single week. For context, Pakistan's average daily wage in manufacturing is approximately $8-12. A 20% petrol jump in one week is not a fuel price story — it is a wage erosion story that hits every sector simultaneously.

The "smart lockdown" that was widely reported — full weekend shutdowns — was proposed and then scrapped after no political consensus was reached. Punjab Province rejected it. The federal government backed down. What replaced it is a patchwork of sector-specific cuts: government office hour reductions, shopping mall closing-time mandates, non-essential lighting bans after 10pm.

Pakistan is also simultaneously managing an armed conflict with Afghanistan that began in late February 2026, following Pakistani airstrikes on militant camps in Nangarhar, Paktika, and Khost. Two simultaneous crises — fuel rationing and a western border conflict — are compressing Pakistan's governmental bandwidth at exactly the moment it is attempting to mediate a ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Bangladesh: 95% Import Dependent, Daily Gas Station Attacks

Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in South Asia to a Hormuz closure. It imports roughly 95% of its energy — oil, gas, coal — from seaborne routes that route through or near the Persian Gulf. There is no domestic alternative.

The result in week five of the closure:

Daily attacks on fuel stations — as petrol supplies shrink and queues lengthen, fuel trucks and petrol stations are being attacked in robberies reported across roughly 3,000 fuel stations nationwide. Security forces have been deployed to protect fuel distribution points in Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet.

Markets and shopping centres close at 6pm — a government mandate reducing commercial electricity consumption. This affects Bangladesh's $38 billion garment export industry, which runs 24-hour operations at factories in the export processing zones. Factories operating on generator power face a 40-60% increase in production costs.

Office hours cut — government and private sector offices operating reduced schedules to cut air conditioning and lighting loads.

Bangladesh's garment industry is the most significant single consequence for developers and tech companies to track. Bangladesh manufactures a significant portion of the physical goods — cables, packaging, textile components for devices — that flow through Asian supply chains. Factory production cost increases get passed through supply chains within 60-90 days.

The Full List: Nine Countries Rationing Energy

Pakistan and Bangladesh are the most acute cases but not the only ones. The full list of countries that have implemented formal energy rationing measures as of week five:

Pakistan — 4-day government work week, free public transport, petrol +20%

Bangladesh — 6pm commercial closure, office hour cuts, fuel station security deployment

Vietnam — industrial electricity rationing for non-essential manufacturing, rotating blackouts in some provinces

Indonesia — fuel subsidy caps accelerated, generator use restrictions for commercial buildings

Sri Lanka — 8-hour daily power cuts resumed (echoes of 2022 crisis), petrol queue limits

Germany — emergency energy buffer drawdown authorised, industrial gas allocation cuts for non-critical sectors

France — strategic reserve drawdown, heating restrictions extended past normal spring cutoff

Poland — coal reserve prioritisation for winter stockpile, LNG spot purchase emergency procurement

India — not yet on the formal list but under direct pressure; fuel prices up 15%, state governments considering rationing

The geographic spread matters. This is not a developing-world energy story — Germany, France, and Poland are all rationing because European LNG supply runs through the same routes affected by Hormuz. Qatar's Ras Laffan facility declared force majeure weeks ago. Asian LNG spot hit $25.40/MMBtu. European industrial gas users are drawing from strategic reserves.

What This Means for Data Centers and Tech Infrastructure

Energy cost is the single largest operating expense for hyperscale data centers — typically 60-70% of total operating cost after amortisation. A sustained 20-40% increase in energy costs in affected regions directly compresses margins for cloud providers operating in those areas.

South Asia data center costs: Google Cloud Mumbai, AWS Mumbai, and Azure India West are all in the direct impact zone. India has not yet implemented formal rationing but fuel prices are up 15% and industrial electricity costs are rising. Cloud computing costs for South Asian workloads will increase in the next pricing cycle if the Hormuz situation persists.

Southeast Asia manufacturing disruption: Vietnam and Indonesia are in the active rationing zone. Both countries are significant in the semiconductor packaging and electronics assembly supply chain. TSMC's advanced packaging facilities are in Taiwan (not directly affected), but the printed circuit board fabrication and assembly operations that feed into finished devices run heavily through Vietnamese and Indonesian factories. Rotating blackouts disrupt precision manufacturing that cannot tolerate power interruptions.

European LNG prices: Germany and France rationing strategic reserves means European hyperscalers — AWS Frankfurt, Azure Netherlands, Google Cloud Belgium — are operating in an elevated energy cost environment. None have issued price increases yet, but the 90-day hedging windows that most cloud providers use will roll off in July-September 2026 if the crisis persists.

The generator problem: In Pakistan and Bangladesh, businesses running on diesel generators to compensate for grid instability are paying 40-60% more per unit of energy than grid power. For tech companies with offices or data centres in these countries — and there are significant ones, particularly in Dhaka's tech hub and Karachi's financial district — the operating cost increase is immediate, not hedged.

Pakistan as Mediator: The Ceasefire Angle

Pakistan's emergence as a mediator between the US and Iran adds a dimension to the energy crisis story that most coverage is missing. Pakistan is not mediating out of altruism — it is mediating because the Hormuz closure is directly damaging its economy and it has both the relationships and the credibility to offer a framework neither the US nor Iran can propose directly.

The two-phase framework Pakistan has proposed: phase one, a 45-day Hormuz partial reopening for commercial traffic; phase two, broader negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme and IRGC operations. Iran's Foreign Affairs Ministry has acknowledged the proposal — the first positive diplomatic signal Iran has sent to any mediator since the conflict began.

If Pakistan's framework succeeds before Tuesday's 8PM EST deadline, the energy rationing story reverses rapidly. A verified Hormuz reopening would see LNG spot prices fall within days and fuel rationing measures begin to unwind within weeks. If it fails and US infrastructure strikes begin Tuesday night, the nine-country list grows.

Key Takeaways

• 9 countries in formal energy rationing as Hormuz closure enters week 5: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Germany, France, Poland, India approaching
• Pakistan: 4-day government work week, petrol +20% in one week, free public transport in Punjab and Islamabad — smart lockdown proposed and scrapped, patchwork austerity instead
• Bangladesh: 95% energy import dependent — daily fuel station attacks, markets close at 6pm, garment factories on generator power at 40-60% higher cost
• Developer infrastructure impact: South Asia cloud costs rising, Southeast Asian electronics manufacturing disrupted by rotating blackouts, European hyperscalers drawing on hedged rates that expire in 2026
• Pakistan mediating: 45-day two-phase ceasefire framework proposed — Iran acknowledged it; if accepted before Tuesday 8PM EST, rationing reverses within weeks
• The Tuesday variable: if US strikes proceed and Iran retaliates with more Gulf missile attacks, the 9-country list expands to 12-15 within 72 hours