Asian consumers accelerate energy-saving policy changes.

The tripling of oil prices over the last three to four years has prompted Asian consumer countries to accelerate their domestic oil and gas exploration efforts and promote energy-saving policy changes, energy ministers from those countries said at a meeting with oil producers here this month.

With Asia the destination for some 70 percent of oil exported from the Gulf region, and the source of about 70 percent of the growth in world oil demand, the dialogue between energy producers and consumers – which started in earnest in the late 1990s under the leadership of Saudi Arabia – has been honed to perfection by Asian political leaders.

IHT