A shifting global energy landscape

This week, we are going to examine current state of affairs of global energy supply and demand changes. Energy is often said to be the lifeblood of modern economies. As you know, Energy is essential to the functioning and growth of modern economies. In the two decades of the 21st century, the global energy system has underwent and is still undergoing revolutionary changes in terms of supply and demand. Why are Chinese and Indian energy consumption surging? Middle Eastern energy production is undergoing revolutionary changes. What’s happening to US unconventional oil and gas revolution? The goal of this 1st week’s class is to examine the current challenges and risks posed by the shifting global energy supply and demand.

Any discussion about energy must begin with supply and demand. There are significant changes about global energy supply and demand of today. In the past most of demand used to be coming from OECD, advanced economies. Global energy cooperation, therefore, was focused on how oil and gas could be supplied to Western, OECD economies without any disruptions. But OECD consumption is stagnating. Oil and gas consumption is declining from the OECD economies. In other words, the importance of energy from Western countries is declining. Instead the rise of new energy consumers in Asia transforming global energy, Japan and Korea have already been big energy consumers. But China and India are rapidly rising as new energy consumers.

In other words, China and India becoming a new energy demand center. A rapidly developing Asia is transforming global energy. Much more oil, gas, and coal will be consumed in Asia in the near future.