ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Japan Oil, Gas and Metal Corporation (JOGMEC) organised the Energy Security on Oil Capacity Building Programme on 7-10 August 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. Seven policymakers from Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam participated in the activity. Also in attendance were invited speakers from Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC), International Energy Agency (IEA), and the private sector.

During the opening session, ACE updated the status and development plans of national oil stockpiling in the ASEAN region. Currently, seven ASEAN Member States (AMS) such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are studying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The Member States aim to maximise the oil stock holding as a measure to an emergency situation. To support the AMS in establishing an effective SPR, ACE helped identify the main challenges that could be found across different Member States; political and technological factors such as changing policies and high operational costs.

During the site trip, participants visited Mutsu Ogawara national oil stockpiling, the oldest storage in Japan which was established in 1984 to address the oil disruption in the late 70s. The participants also visited Kuji National Underground Oil Stockpiling Base. In Kuji Base, JOGMEC shared all valuable information on how their engineers rapidly restored the facilities after the tsunami disaster in 2011. The two facilities (Mutsu and Kuji) are good references for the AMS to set up an oil stockpiling facility with excellent natural disaster prevention system.  At the end of the activity, all participants shared positive feedbacks and hoped that ACE and JOGMEC will continue the capacity building programme to assist them to advance the SPR development in their Member States.

Mutsu Ogawara Oil Stockpiling. The 1st national oil stockpiling in Japan which has 4.6 million kl capacity. Credit: ACE