Soaring oil price encourages development of alternative energies
23/4/2006 9:41
The soaring oil price has become a driving force behind the development of
alternative energies, said leading people from energy circles at the Boao Forum
for Asia annual conference 2006 on Saturday.
The closing price of crude oil
on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYME) skyrocketed to over US$75 per barrel
on Friday, another new record since the founding of the NYME.
Zhang Guobao,
vice minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission
(NDRC), said at the forum held in south China's island province of Hainan that a
high oil price brings about not only challenges but also opportunities.
It
will not only promote the investment in world oil exploration and production,
but also that in alternative energies and energy saving, he said.
Supporting
Zhang's opinion, Utz-Hellmuth Felcht, chairman and CEO of Degussa AG, said that
major international chemical companies including his own are searching for
alternatives to relieve the pressure caused by soaring oil price.
The Energy
Policy Act of the United States issued in 2005 aims to increase the annual
consumption of fuel alcohol or bio-fuel to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.
Jiro
Nemoto, Honorary Chairman of NYK Line, said that as the world's top oil
importer, Japan has developed the highest energy consumption efficiency in the
world.
Citing statistics of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Jiro
Nemoto said that if the energy consumption of Japan for producing one unit of
GDP is denoted as one, then that of the European Union is 1.6, the United
States, 2.7, the Republic of Korea, 3.3, with China, 9.
There is still a lot
of inefficiency in China's industrial structure and the energy consumption for
producing one unit of GDP is quite high when compared with developed countries,
said Zhang Guobao.
But looking at it another way, he said, it also leaves
ample room for China to improve its energy structure and efficiency.
China
has made great efforts in developing alternative energies, said Zhang. According
to him, China's experiments of alcohol-mixed gasoline in northeast and central
China have made progress and the NDRC is planning to expand it to other
regions.
And the project to refine coal into oil by the Shenhua Group
Corporation Limited, one of China's largest coal producer, will be completed
next year, he said.
Speaking at a meeting on energy development on Thursday,
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for effective measures to ensure the
implementation of the government's energy saving and renewable development
policies.
The meeting also asked major state-owned energy companies to
develop renewable energies, said Zhang.
Xinhua News
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