APEC to back clean, diversified energy in Asia

APEC to back clean, diversified energy in Asia

TOKYO (Reuter): The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) energy working group will promote cleaner and more diversified energy sources within its 17 member states, group co-chairman Russell Higgins said.

"(APEC's) biggest challenge will be underpinning Asia's rapid economic growth whilst maintaining environmental protection," Higgins said in an interview. He added APEC countries already consume half of the world's energy.

The group is meeting in Tokyo to discuss coordinated energy databases, clean coal technology and energy conservation.

Last year, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said though Southeast Asia has generally maintained the highest growth rate in the Asia Pacific region, bottlenecks have developed in infrastructure, manpower, and supporting industries. Capital and engineer shortages, insufficient infrastructure and environmental problems were behind the bottlenecks, MITI added.

Yet industry analysts and multilateral agencies continue to forecast an energy capacity explosion for the Asia Pacific region over the next decade.

Many of them expect Asia's ability to feed power to its ravenous industries to expand at the rate of 6.8 to seven percent annually, compared with the world average of 3.1.

An important aspect of APEC's energy strategy will be coordinating technology transfers from environmentally advanced, developed nations to those whose rapid growth rates have pushed energy efficiency and environmental concerns to the sidelines, Higgins said.

Aid

"Bilateral aid will be an important facet, but so will the exchange of experts from the developing economies," he said.

Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), the rising star of clean energy sources, is already burgeoning in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and in southern China, Higgins said.

Japan's Institute of Energy Economics (IEE) places Asia's LNG appetite at 63 to 67 million tons in 2000 and 75 to 95 million tons in 2010, standing in stark contrast with 44 million in 1992.

"Japan, especially, is a keen LNG buyer who generally takes its contracted allotments fully," Higgins said.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Japan dominates trade in this fuel.

Japan's Gas Association predicts LNG consumed in this country during the fiscal year starting April 1994 will be approximately 10.6 million tons. The IEA sees Japan's LNG demand at 50 to 51 million tons in 2000 and 54 to 62 million tons in 2010.

South Korea and Taiwan are also major LNG converts, whose appetites are expected to expand on a similar scale.

For the moment though, LNG remains an expensive enterprise, and supplies may have been slightly overestimated.

"But by the end of the century there will be a (demand) gap that will need to be satisfied by new sources," Higgins said.

The International Energy Agency said there are 11 new LNG projects under discussion but that this may be insufficient to cover the 50 percent increase in demand.

Higgins, who is also executive director at the Australian Department of Primary Industry and Energy, added that he thought other potential projects could come from Russia, the Middle East, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia.

Diversifying to new energy sources will help APEC nations maintain their energy security in the face of declining Indonesian and Chinese crude oil supplies and increased dependency on Middle Eastern oil, he said.