ASEAN drafts oil stockpiling roadmap

Members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), together with China, South Korea and Japan, are drafting an oil stockpiling roadmap, which is part of a regional energy security plan to be established by 2010. It will be implemented on a voluntary and non-binding basis and will allow individual nations of ASEAN to also negotiate bilateral agreements on oil supply security. The roadmap is an extension of a petroleum security agreement signed by ASEAN member-countries in Thailand in late February. The first draft will be discussed at a meeting in Myanmar in late July. Energy ministers will use this meeting to discuss oil and gas security, energy efficiency targets, renewable energy targets and to consider setting up a nuclear energy safety network, standardizing and harmonizing safety standards within ASEAN. Several ASEAN nations, including Vietnam and Thailand, are actively considering nuclear energy. (May 18, 2009)