IEA stresses importance of energy balance

The shift in demand for energy from West to East shouldn't undermine global energy security, the IEA executive director said from Saudi Arabia. International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria Van der Hoeven, speaking at a petroleum studies research center in Riyadh, said shifts in energy demand shouldn't put the global energy balance at risk. "This has important implications for us -- the evolution of international energy governance," she said. "(The IEA is) determined to embrace these changes and to expand our international collaboration so that we can together tackle the global energy challenges that we face." In September, Howard Gruenspecht, acting administrator at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said top energy consumer China is expected to use 68 percent more energy than the United States within the next quarter century. The EIA said the expected increase in world energy consumption of 53 percent by 2035 to be driven largely by economic growth in China and India. Short term, however, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in its October report, said it saw a 7.7 percent growth in the Indian economy during the second quarter of the year, the slowest rate in 18 months. The Chinese economy, the report noted, is expected to slow this year as well.