The ASEAN Energy Scene in Global Perspective

Abstract

IN THE LAST TWO YEARS I have been studying the energy plans and prospects of the five countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand-both as a normal extension of my long-standing interest in this region and because, despite geographic contiguity and socioeconomic similarity, these five countries illustrate a wide range of energy problems. Indonesia is an OPEC country with a low per capita GNP and the fifth largest population in the world. It must conserve its oil and natural gas for export in order to acquire foreign exchange for its economic development. Endowed with natural resources, renewable as well as nonrenewable, Indonesia has a range of alternative energy options. Malaysia is a prosperous small LDC, which earns much of its foreign exchange from the export of rubber, tin, and palm oil. It recently discovered enough oil and natural gas to make it self-sufficient in energy for at least the next fifteen years, but exports of oil and gas are becoming an increasingly important part of its foreign exchange earnings. The Philippines and Thailand are medium sized oil-importing countries that experienced the full impact of the 1973-1974 oil price increase. They spend currently at least a quarter of their export earnings on oil imports. Although their foreign exchange earnings from rice or sugar helped them overcome the 1973-1974 increase in oil prices, they are anxious to reduce dependence on oil by developing all alternative energy sources available to them. Singapore is a rapidly developing city state that the World Bank and the IMF no longer consider an LDC. It