The world's oil consumption has been increasing for more than a century with a few exceptions. However, there would be a possibility that the recent increase in oil consumption in developing countries such as China and India tighten the long term oil market. Since the exact amount of oil...

With crude oil price largely fluctuating, both oil producing and consuming countries have come to identify the challenges brought by the destabilization of crude oil price. Among those, there have been discussions on fair price, that is, the price level which both consuming and oil producing...

The world energy market is undergoing a period of great turbulence, and major challenges to global energy security are emerging. Under the current global economic crisis, the world energy demand is likely to stagnate for a couple of years ahead. But in the long run, world energy demand is...

In this analysis, we projected Japans energy demand/supply and energy-related CO2 emissions to 2050. Our analysis of various scenarios indicated that Japans CO2 emissions in 2050 could be potentially reduced by 26-58% from the current level (FY 2005) (Figure 1). These results suggest that Japan...

This paper attempts to convey three key messages : First, we believe interdependence in energy among Asian countries is vital for the economic development of key Asian countries. Second, there are several key impediments to increasing Asian interdependence; we believe addressing these impediments...

When people analyse oil prices, the forward curve is often referred to as it reflects the average view among market participants. In this paper, to what extent the forward curve provides useful information in forecasting oil prices was analysed quantitatively. Although the usefulness of the...

Japan has recently been urged to implement measures to increase utility factors for nuclear power plants in order to address energy security and greenhouse gas emission cuts. The average utility factor for Japan's nuclear power plants in 2009 rose from 58.0% in 2008 to 64.7%, still below levels...

European countries employ different strategies on gas supply security depending on the time scale : while their short-term strategies focus on economic efficiency, long-term strategies also place more emphasis on ensuring energy security. With regard to short-term natural gas procurement...

Since the autumn of 2008, the global LNG supply/demand balance has eased substantially. Demand-side factors including the impact of the financial crisis on global natural gas consumption, and supply-side factors such as launchings of new projects and progress in unconventional natural gas...