2016 Energy Security Workshop

"Oil and Gas for Asia" Revisited: Asia’s Energy Security amid Global Market Change


On July 8, 2016, the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars co-hosted NBR’s twelfth annual Energy Security Workshop, “’Oil and Gas for Asia’ Revisited: Asia’s Energy Security amid Global Market Change.”

The recent dramatic shifts in global energy markets carry a number of important implications for Asia’s energy security. Some countries have embraced abundant supplies and lower prices as an opportunity to enact much-needed policy reforms and improve trade balances. For others, the current outlook has had profoundly negative economic implications, which in turn could increase regional concerns about political stability. Given the predominance of oil-linked LNG contracts in Asia, these changes also have potentially significant yet ambiguous implications for efforts to advance a “golden age of gas” and encourage transitions to lower-carbon sources of energy more broadly.

With these concerns in mind, the 2016 Energy Security Workshop examined:

  • How lower prices have impacted the global oil supply and demand outlook and how this is impacting the supply security of the region’s major oil importers
  • Asia’s key supply and geopolitical uncertainties, including prospects for sustaining the region’s longer-term goal of diversifying its oil import sources geographically
  • What “lower for longer” oil prices might mean for LNG prices and efforts to spur natural gas consumption in Asia, reduce coal use, and advance post-Paris climate ambitions
  • Implications for the United States and the Asia-Pacific

Speakers

Speakers included:

Edward C. Chow , Center for Strategic and International Studies

Clara Gillispie, The National Bureau of Asian Research

Antoine Halff , Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University

Mikkal E. Herberg , The National Bureau of Asian Research

J. William Ichord, International Business Consultant

Ken Koyama, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan

Michael Kugelman, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Melanie Nakagawa, Department of State, United States

Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Leslie Palti-Guzman, The Rapidan Group

Laura Schwartz, The National Bureau of Asian Research

Masayuki Tanimoto, Japan Bank for International Cooperation

Mark Thurber, Stanford University

Nikos Tsafos, enalytica

Event Sponsors

Asian Development Bank
Chevron
ConocoPhillips
ExxonMobil
Hanyang University, Center for Energy Governance & Security
Korea Energy Economics Institute

Agenda and Photo Gallery

Agenda | Photo Gallery

Reflections on the Discussion

Workshop speaker Ken Koyama, Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ), published his reflections on the discussion in an IEEJ Special Bulletin: Asia’s Energy Security Outlook.

Event Co-Hosts