IEA offers energy security expertise at ASEAN and APEC meetings

The International Energy Agency (IEA) provided critical information twice during October 2015 at gatherings of energy ministers in Asia. The highlights were the launch of the World Energy Outlook special report Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, at the 33rd ASEAN Energy Ministers’ Meeting, followed in Cebu, Philippines, by the first keynote address at a gathering of ministers from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum countries.

IEA Director of Energy Security and Markets Keisuke Sadamori led the Agency’s contributions at both events.

He officially launched the Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2015 to the news media on 8 October 2015 following a presentation during the 9th East Asia Summit (EAS) Energy Ministers’ Meeting and the 5th ASEAN Ministers-IEA Dialogue. At the launch, Mr. Sadamori detailed the region’s rising importance in global energy markets, its growing reliance on fossil energy and the need to attract annual average investment of nearly US$100 billion to secure the energy needs of the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

He also presented three other IEA studies at the ASEAN Ministers-IEA Dialogue:

• The new Development Prospects of the ASEAN Power Sector: Towards Electricity Market Integration.
• Energy Efficiency Market Report 2015.
• Medium-Term Gas Market Report 2015.

Ministers’ queries focused on grid interconnections and the recommendations in Development Prospects, which focuses on electricity sector governance and highlights the need to establish an ASEAN-wide permanent regulatory body and commence joint planning for renewables development.

In his 12 October address in the Philippines, Mr. Sadamori warned the ministers of the growing urgency of energy system resilience. He then signed a letter of intent with the APEC Energy Working Group on expanding co-operation in eight sectors including energy security, resilience, data and efficiency.

The IEA has long been involved in Asian energy issues. The Agency held its first-ever emergency response exercise in a non-member country in Thailand in 2011; it held another such exercise in China early this year. Also, Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2015 marks the third in-depth World Energy Outlook study of the region in six years, following reports written for World Energy Outlook 2013 and World Energy Outlook 2009.

Edited from press release by Angharad Lock

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/13102015/iea-offers-energy-security-expertise-at-asean-apec-meetings-1584/