RAYONG, Thailand: The tiny fishing hamlet on a stretch of land that juts into the Gulf of Thailand looks just like countless others that dot the country’s coastline.

It has the brightly coloured boats, the packs of street dogs and the delicate waves lapping onto the sands.

But this one, in Rayong province south-east of Bangkok, has a unique perspective. It stares straight into the heart of Thailand’s largest industrial gas complex.

Map Ta Phut, one of Southeast Asia’s biggest petrochemical hubs, dominates a vast coastal area here. 

Within the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), a special economic zone, it handles a significant share of Thailand’s energy imports, gas processing and petrochemical production.

It depends heavily on pipeline natural gas and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), much of which is tied to global supply routes, including shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, now disrupted by the Iran conflict.

Map Ta Phut has permanently altered the coastal views here, and its waters and air. It has also irrevocably shaped the country’s power system, now at the frontline of a global energy shock.

Thailand is one of the most gas-dependent power systems in Asia. Gas generates roughly 55 to 60 per cent of the country’s electricity and is also widely used as a petrochemical feedstock.

Thailand’s reliance on gas is being tested on two fronts at once. As geopolitical tensions disrupt global supply and push up prices, the cost of keeping the country powered is rising sharply.

Gas is no longer the cheap “brid...