Shifting geopolitics of Asian energy

The changes in global energy consumption have reshaped the underlying context for energy geopolitics.

Emerging importance of natural gas

Countries throughout the region are seeking to expand the use of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for both energy security and climate change reasons. Asia is scrambling to mobilize sufficient energy supplies to continue supporting economic growth while at the same time trying to move toward a cleaner, more sustainable energy mix.

Russia pivoting to Asia

Russia traditionally has been heavily focused on maintaining its lucrative natural gas and oil export markets in Europe. The ability to diversify supply sources as well as transport routes is vitally important to China, Japan, India, and South Korea as well.

Russia-China alliance

Russia has become the biggest oil export country to China in May 2015(Source: General Administration do Customs in China).Until 2014, Saudi Arabia was the biggest exporter to China. Asian consumers are making an effort to link to Russia energy, but Russian energy is slowly being built with China but Korea and Japan having difficulty with linking to Russian energy.

[ESPO Pipeline(Source: Thompson Reuters)]

[Russia’s Crude Oil share in the Japanese Market]