ExxonMobil.

Asian Oil Consumption May Double By 2030: Asian nations, particularly China and India, have a greater interest in a peaceful Middle East and Africa as their reliance on oil imports surges over the next 25 years, said Lee Raymond, the head of ExxonMobil Corp., said in the past week. Raymond, Chairman and CEO of the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, said it would be "quite challenging" for the region to meet its future energy needs, with emerging Asia oil demand set to more than double by 2030.

On Nov. 6, Reuters quoted Raymond as saying in a speech in Hong Kong: "Asian countries, including China, will have an ever-greater stake in the resolution of problems that have arisen in the Middle East and Africa. There will be no way around greater reliance on the Middle East and Africa. Political stability and political developments in the Middle East and Africa will be as important to China and other countries in Asia as to anyone in the world". Raymond was in Hong Kong for the 40th anniversary of the Texas-based giant's partnership with local utility CLP Holdings.

Raymond said oil demand should be in part driven by car usage, with the number of automobiles in emerging Asia surging from 60m to more than 400m by 2030. Natural gas demand in the region will grow even more quickly, tripling in the next 25 years, in line with power consumption. Raymond cited a recent IEA estimate that said China's oil imports would double to 80% of its oil demand and gas imports would rise to about 30% of its natural gas consumption in 2030. He said: "Statistics like this have evidently attracted notice in Beijing, leading to discussions of plans to address import dependence".

Asia imports about two-thirds of its 23m b/d crude oil requirement, most of that from the Middle East, where the bulk of the world's oil reserves are. China last year surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest oil consumer after the US. China imports more than 40% of its crude oil, a figure that is on the rise as domestic production stagnates and a booming economy fuels demand.

China has slashed its crude oil export quota for 2005 by two thirds from this year to divert more supply to the domestic market, Commerce Ministry officials in Beijing said on Nov. 4. ExxonMobil confirmed this week it was in talks with China's largest oil and gas producer China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the parent of PetroChina Co. Ltd., to sell the Chinese firm natural gas from its Russian project (see Gas Market Trends).