China's demand to grab biggest part of Asia's rising energy needs

Around 710 nuke power stations can satiate their demand.

According to Macquarie Research, China accounted for 55% of regional energy demand in 2013 and in the study's base scenario this remains at that level. However, behind that result is a massive increase in energy demand ~1060 mtoe – that’s equivalent to 710 new nuclear power stations of 1 GW each; when one thinks of regional energy security vis-à-vis the South and East China seas this clearly has some relevance – China’s relative hunger for energy is more than likely only going to rise.

Here's more from Macquarie Research:

China has by far the highest forecast increase in energy demand over the next 11 years in our base case, of almost 1060 mtoe, or 56% of the entire region’s increase over that period.

This is important for the overall regional picture but another interesting, country-specific way to think about future energy demand increases is as a percentage of current demand for each country.

China has the biggest absolute challenge, but Indonesia’s leaders could regard the country as actually having a bigger energy challenge ahead than China – our base scenario sees its energy demand rising by 66% versus China’s 37%.

Also, the Philippines faces a similarly daunting 61% base scenario increase in energy demand by 2025.

India and Malaysia with a ~50% increase clearly have significant hurdles to overcome, as does Thailand with 42%. Some countries are better placed than others to meet these challenges – none of the demand growth discussed above would be that challenging over a ten-year period if each country was endowed with vast amounts of easily accessible primary energy reserves.

Unfortunately that is not the case for any of them as we discus n the next section of this report.