Jakarta, 12 October 2020: Professor Hidetoshi Nishimura, President of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), represented ERIA at the LNG Producer Consumer Conference 2020 which was held virtually, organized by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan and the Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC).

Prof Nishimura delivered his keynote speech titled ‘LNG and Gas Innovation as a Driver for the Energy Transition’ at the ministerial session, covering ERIA’s most recent regional energy outlook which projects that ASEAN’s primary energy demand will grow by 2.9 times between 2017 and 2050. Natural gas demand will grow by 3.5 times driven by power generation as well as the industrial and transport sectors. Power generation demand will grow by 3.3 times and gas-based power generation will grow by 3.8 times. LNG’s share of total power generation is continuously higher than that of coal during the outlook period.

Prof Nishimura said ‘Natural gas is clearly a promising bridging fuel to a low carbon future. Its operational flexibility is a good combination with growing share of intermittent renewable.  In order to further enhance its role, first and foremost, cost competitiveness of natural gas needs to be further strengthened. To this end, we need to

-           accelerate the removal of destination restriction

-           develop a reliable LNG price benchmark

-           promote capacity building

-           assist private investment in the LNG value chain

-           accelerate regional gas pipeline interconnection’.

Please watch the full video here