Keun Wook-Paik - Böcker

The next decade will be crucial for Asian gas markets and determine whether natural gas will become a major fuel in the key energy markets of China, India, Japan and Korea, or will remain a "promising" but peripheral energy source. Natural Gas in Asia is a new edition of a 2002 study on the future of natural gas in the major energy markets of Asia. The 2nd edition has been substantially rewritten and completely updated, and contains two new chapters on South East Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. The future energy needs and environmental problems of China, India and the rest of Asia are considerable. A major question is whether gas supplies can and will respond to expanding demand for the cleanest fossil fuel? Large scale projects will need to be implemented in Russia, the Central Asian Republics and the Middle East to bring required supplies to Asian markets in the years to 2020. This book assesses the economic opportunities, political obstacles and other challenges - both domestic and international - to these projects. In order to succeed, pipeline infrastructure will need to be built over long distances to bring gas to these markets, as well as significant numbers of new LNG terminals. The volume discusses the major current and potential gas markets in Asia: China, India, Japan and Korea, as well as the potential supply of pipeline gas and LNG to Asia from: Russia, Central Asia, South East Asia, Australia and Middle Eastern countries. An important aspect of the next two decades will be the extent to which the region can develop pipeline gas sources to supplement existing large scale LNG imports. The volume also looks at the substantial gas markets emerging in China and India which are at the early stage of introducing large scale natural gas use in cities. These markets face the commercial challenge of developing gas-fired power generation at a cost which may be greater than generation based on domestically produced coal. However, considerations of local air quality and global emissions may give extra value to gas fired generation, as has happened elsewhere in the world.

This book analyses the evolution of Sino-Russian oil and gas cooperation during the 1990s and 2000s. It describes how China has become a large importer of Russian oil, but not of its gas, and gives an explanation as to why this curious contrast has developed. The author argues that, given the two countries' energy endowments and needs, it has been almost inevitable that there should be a considerable amount of Sino-Russian oil and gas cooperation, but concludes that the imperatives of oil cooperation were much more powerful than those relating to gas. The book examines the progress of oil and gas exploration and development in East Siberia and Russia's Far East, and estimates the amount of oil and gas that Russia could export from these regions to China and Northeast Asian countries. It also provides a parallel analysis of China's potential to be a large scale importer of oil and gas and presents a detailed account of its dealings with the Central Asian Republics. This in-depth evaluation reveals the differences in the characteristics of the oil and gas sectors that have led to such contrasting outcomes. The final part of the book predicts the likely evolution of Sino-Russian oil and gas cooperation and the national, regional, and global consequences.