US State Department Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Bob Cekuta, who is visiting from the United States, and US Ambassador Scot Marciel on Monday joined Indonesian Vice Minister for Energy Susilo Siswoutomo and Oil and Gas Director General Edy Hermantoro in welcoming representatives from throughout Southeast Asia to the first day of a three-day workshop on natural gas.
The workshop is part of the U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Energy Partnership launched by President Obama and President Yudhoyono with the Sultan of Brunei in November 2012.
During his remarks, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Cekuta highlighted the dawn of a "golden age of gas" and ASEAN's potential role in this energy shift.
He added the U.S. experience in unconventional gas provided lessons learned for other countries to draw from, although not necessarily replicate.
He said that the United States retains a deep interest in being open and sharing its experiences, what it has learned, what it wished it had known, what it is learning. One point that may be worth bearing in mind as it talks about gas over the next days, i.e., "we are still in the early days,".
"We are still learning. Technologies are evolving. We need to open as well in how we deal with, how we take advantage of these new technologies to obtain the energy our people need for their lives and prosperity, hence, why it is counted among the four priority areas under the U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Energy Partnership," he said.
So, with the global aspect of these developments taken into consideration, "we have structured this event with our Indonesian partners to look at the key issues in the Asia-Pacific natural gas market."
"Today, we've gathered together some of the world's foremost experts to provide their perspectives on what the Asian gas market will look like in the future. We will also look at what it takes to create an Asian gas market, both physically and from a policy perspective. We'll look at some of the potential technologies and challenges in expanding the use of gas, and, finally, we'll examine some of the options for financing gas projects in East Asia," Cekuta said.
To meet the challenges of growing populations and rising incomes that play so large in the growing demand for energy, "we are looking at a situation where world primary energy consumption is expected to rise 1.6 percent annually between 2011 and 2030, according to some highly recognized experts, a trend that means the world will consume 36 percent more energy by 2030, i.e., in about 16 or 17 years.
Globally, he said, " we consumed 3.4 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of natural gas in 2012. This figure is set to rise to 5 tcm by 2035, with an annual growth rate of 1.6 percent.
Also, it is worth nothing that, in line with the overall trend in the rise in energy consumption, this growth will occur primarily in non-OECD countries.
Vice Minister Susilo and Director General Edy said meanwhile that Indonesia needs foreign investment in its gas sector and welcomed the forthcoming discussions on gas development best practices and policies.(A014/H-YH)
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