Asia Pacific will have a significant uptick in gas consumption in the near term as the region moves towards an energy transition. Petronas chief operating officer/executive vice president, gas business Adnan Zainal Abidin said in the case of Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Bhd has pledged to halve its coal usage by 2035, and the utility company would need a substitute for its power generation.
“Solar will have its limitations (on) its intermittency. Malaysia is probably not a good place for wind.
“We have not pondered the subject of nuclear, which in my personal opinion (we) should prepare for the years ahead. So what is left if not gas?” he said at a plenary session “Gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG): powering Asia growth” at Energy Asia 2023 today.
Adnan expects gas consumption in Peninsular Malaysia to grow due to limited indigenous gas fields.
However, he noted that Petronas is exploring further (in this area) despite the challenges of setting up new fields due to its tendency to generate high contaminants. It will also be costlier following the incorporation of new carbon capture, utilisation, and storage.
“Importantly, who is going to pay for this? We do not want to be a monopoly in a regulated market, because the power market is regulated in Malaysia. So, (there has to be) a reform in the power industry. Otherwise, someone has to pay for it,” he said.
Consumers will also have to accept price increases and to be more efficient because sometimes subsidies distorts the market (and) we become inefficient, he added.
