Asia energy stockpile way for the future - Malaysia
Date: 08-Oct-02
Country: MALAYSIA
"Perhaps Asia needs to explore the possibility for energy stockpiling systems," Hassan Marican, president and chief executive of Kuala Lumpur's state-owned Petronas, said in an interview ahead of World Economic Forum's East Asia summit.
"Except for Japan and South Korea, most Asian countries have little or no stockpiling systems in place," he said in the interview conducted by the WEF and posted on its website, www.weforum.org, ahead of the three-day summit.
Japan, a member of the International Energy Agency, had 160 days' stock of oil, including state-owned and private-sector reserves, said Hassan, one of the summit's co-chairs.
Leading OPEC members meeting in Osaka, Japan, last month declined to commit to pumping more oil before their next conference in December, even if crude stayed above the $28 top end of their targeted price range.
Hassan said by 2020, Asia might be consuming 32 percent of world energy output but would still be relying on Middle East oil imports unless it found alternatives, particularly for emergency.
He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Petroleum Security Agreement may no longer be valid by then as some exporters in the group like Indonesia and Malaysia may become importers unless additional reserves were found.
ASEAN's top oil producer is Brunei. The 10-nation association also groups Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand.
"Given Asia's high dependence on oil and to a certain extent, coal, it is also important for Asia to explore the possibilities of diversifying its energy utilisation to include other energy resources such as gas and perhaps, renewable energy, which are in abundance," he said.
The Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline and ASEAN Power Grid were among notable efforts towards self-sufficiency in energy, he said.
