Asia is the focal point of energy demand growth

(Left) David Pumphrey, Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Energy and National Security Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies, (Middle) Arthur Hanna, Energy Industry Global Managing Director, Accenture, (Right) Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, United Arab Emirates

Panelists speaking this afternoon at the Singapore Energy Summit said the global energy map has changed and agreed that the changes have stemmed from the radical way countries sourced, transformed and consumed energy.

Asia has become the centre of energy demand growth, while the OECD countries are going into a period of flat or negative growth in their energy consumption. These developments, they said, have served to re-draw the energy map and its focus is now Asia. The rapidly growing economies of Asia, in particular China has fuelled rapid its thirst for energy compared with developed countries and this has gradually shifted trade flows towards Asia.

Mr David Pumphrey, Co-Director and Senior Fellow of the Energy and National Security Program in the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said: “The map is being re-drawn towards Asia and towards those countries exporting into those markets over time”.

He added that the discovery of unconventional sources of gas in North America would make the United States self-sufficient in energy. Energy exporting countries would have to re-think their export strategies. Although such unconventional sources were not limited to the United States, the conditions that has fuelled the United States’ experience was unique. He shared that the United States experience was largely due to its “highly developed infrastructure”, “robust competition amongst service and oil companies” and that “mineral rights are owned by individual companies rather than being owned by the country”.  

Mr Pumphrey was speaking at a panel that included Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei Minister of Energy of United Arab Emirates and Accenture’s Global Energy Industry Managing Director Arthur Hanna.

As energy demand in Asia grows, the panellists said that there was a need to transition the region’s energy mix to address climate change. Currently, coal is a very important part of that mix. As environmental sustainability becomes of increasingly importance, countries will have to relook their energy options to move Asia towards a low carbon future.

One option is to take advantage of the increasing amount of natural gas available within the region and globally. The other is to reconsider nuclear energy.

“Nuclear power still has a very big future in Asia. When you look at the demand growth that is still to come, this is a very important piece in meeting those future needs,” he said. However, safety concerns and public acceptance still remain areas that need to be sorted out, the panellists shared. Countries would also have to weave renewable sources into the energy mix.

BY : Rachel Su Huifen, Energy Market Authority (Singapore)