ASIA PACIFIC ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE APEC ENERGY OVERVIEW 2004 DECEMBER - 2004 Prepared By ASIA PACIFIC ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE (APERC) THE INSTITUTE OF ENERGY ECONOMICS, JAPAN Inui Bldg. -Kachidoki 16F, 1-13-1 Kachidoki, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0054, JAPAN Tel: +81 (3) 5144-8551 Fax: +81 (3) 5144-8555 E-mail:
[email protected] APERC Website: http://www.ieej.or.jp/aperc/ FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION SECRETARIAT 35, Heng Mui Keng Terrace Singapore 119616 Tel: (65) 6775 6012 Fax: (65) 6775 6013 E-mail:
[email protected] Website: http://www.apecsec.org.sg ã 2004 APEC Secretariat APEC#………… ISSN ………… PAGE II FOREWORD The recent recovery of the world economy in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis has accompanied strong demand growth in energy worldwide. In no small part, the strong and robust energy consumption growth engenders volatile energy prices, especially oil and coal. Rather an unexpected surge in demand for energy has put a strain on energy markets as energy supply is constrained by upstream and transpor tation infrastructure. Most APEC economies are increasingly concerned with energy security and the development of new and renewable technologies to reduce its dependence on conventional, imported energy. The high cost of these new types of energy is the major stumbling block for their deployment and is still waiting to be resolved. Individual APEC economy energy policy initiatives and notable developments particularly on energy security, upstream and downstream development, transformation and transportation, market reform, efficiency and conservation, alternative energy development, renewable energy deployment, environmental protection, and international/regional cooperation are compiled in this report.