Williamson's views are shared by Indonesia's Energy Minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who declared - at a meeting of top business leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit - that, "Growth in the Asia Pacific region is a dynamic one and energy is needed."

"Yet the region's growth is increasingly dependent on oil which is mostly imported from the Middle East [and] the disparity between the energy alternatives and the rapid economic growth has put the security of supply as a critical factor," he added.

Williamson revealed figures released by the International Energy Agency that "predicts that worldwide demand for energy will grow by two-thirds by 2030 [and] most of the growth will of course come from Asia... obviously this is an enormous challenge for all of the countries involved." He feels that turning to gas would prove the best alternative to oil.

He does admit, however, that a major problem would be to gain access to the region's untapped reserves. "A lot of the challenges ahead evolve around getting some of that undeveloped gas to the markets and the capital required to do that and the different policies and systems required to do that." Failure to do so, he warns, would be severe for the region and he cited the recent mega blackouts that struck the United States as a good example of the need to find a secure and reliable source of energy.

At least 60% of Asia's oil needs come from the Middle East and - in SE Asia alone - an estimated US$100 billion of investments will be needed in the power utility industry in order for it to meet demand for supply over the next 12 to 13 years.