October 6, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 28, 1423

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5: Asia probably needs an energy stockpile as the Middle East’s instability continues to threaten oil supplies, Malaysia’s oil industry chief was quoted as saying ahead of a regional economic summit starting this weekend.

Perhaps Asia needs to explore the possibility for energy stockpiling systems, Hassan Marican, president and chief executive of Kuala Lumpur’s state-owned Petronas said in an interview ahead of World Economic Forum’s East Asia summit.

Except for Japan and South Korea, most Asian countries have little or no stockpiling systems in place, he said in the interview conducted by the WEF and posted on its website, www.weforum.org, ahead of the three-day summit. Japan, a member of the International Energy Agency, had 160 days’ stock of oil, including state-owned and private-sector reserves, said Hassan, one of the summit’s co-chairs.

Leading Opec members meeting in Osaka, Japan, last month declined to commit to pumping more oil before their next conference in December, even if crude stayed above the $28 top end of their targeted price range.

Hassan said by 2020, Asia might be consuming 32 per cent of world energy output but would still be relying on ME oil imports unless it found alternatives, particularly for emergency.—Reuters