The global oil market is undergoing a major transformation involving shifting trade flows of crude oil and refined products, Maria van der Hoeven, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said Monday.
The global oil market is undergoing a major transformation involving
shifting trade flows of crude oil and refined products, Maria van der Hoeven,
the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said Monday.
The
U.S.
and
Canada
are
expected to substantially increase crude-oil output in the coming decade,
making the
U.S.
, the
world's thirstiest oil consumer, less dependent on oil from the
Middle
East
and
Africa
, Ms. van der Hoeven said
during a speech at Singapore International Energy Week.
Meanwhile, economic development and urbanization in
Asia
will
fuel rising demand for energy not just in
China
, but
also in countries such as
India
,
Indonesia
and
Thailand
--and
that demand will be filled with imports from the
Middle
East
and
Africa
, Ms. van der Hoeven said.
As a result, Asian countries will bear more of the risk of a disruption to oil
supplies from those less-stable regions of the world, she said. A disruption of
supplies from geopolitically sensitive regions would "touch
Asia
first," she said.
She noted that Western sanctions targeting
Iran
's
crude-oil exports have been "particularly challenging in
Asia
,"
which is already the main outlet for Middle Eastern crude oil.
Growing output in the West and rising demand in the East will have
"clearcut consequences for the midstream and the downstream sectors"
that are often overlooked, Ms. van der Hoeven told reporters on the sidelines
of the conference.
The volume of international trade in crude oil is expected to slip, but trade
in oil products is expected to grow in both volume and scope, she said.
In the downstream sector, for example,
Asia
is
set to become the global refining hub as it adds more efficient refining
capacity, allowing it to meet the oil-product requirements of the
U.S.
,
Europe
and
Australia
, she
said.
China
, the
world's second-largest oil consumer, could become a new oil-product export
powerhouse if all its refinery projects proceed, the Paris-based energy
watchdog said this month.
Net refining capacity is expected to grow by around 7 million barrels a day by
2017, she said.
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