The article discusses the increasing dependence on Middle Eastern oil and gas imports for major Asian buyers, with roughly half of China's oil imports coming from the Middle East. The country purchased an average of 1.38 million barrels per day of Iranian oil last year, or about 13% of its seaborne imports. China is also the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas, with a third of its imports from the Mideast. Japan, the No.2 LNG importer, imported 2.8 million barrels of oil per day in January, imported 1.6 million bpd from Saudi Arabia, with supply also from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar. South Korea, which relies heavily on imports for its energy, buys around 70% of the country's oil and 20% of L.A.