The 2nd�WG meeting of the ERIA research project on the "Sustainable Development of Natural Gas Market in EAS Region" was held on 10�April 2015, in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Ichiro Kutani, the project leader, gave the opening remarks together with Dr. Yanfei Li of ERIA. Dr. Li underlined the necessity of integrating the discussion on the impacts of the recent drop in the price of oil and natural gas into the study this year.

Dr. Tetsuo Morikawa spoke on the outlook for the demand and trade flow of natural gas in the East Asia Summit (EAS) region, which involves the investment in energy infrastructure needed in the coming decades.

Discussions by experts from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Viet Nam, and Thailand focused on the investment and financing of natural gas infrastructure in the region, from each country's perspective. China highlighted the significant potential the country has in unconventional natural gas, including shale gas and CBM, and the steady progress China has made in exploiting these resources. India focused on the introduction of its domestic natural gas market and its LNG terminal expansions. Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Viet Nam updated information on their new upstream and downstream projects, including new production sites, new pipeline connections, and new LNG terminals. Singapore introduced its restructured gas industry, its new LNG terminal expansion and opened access for trading purposes, and its trading hub initiatives. In addition, Mr. Paramate Hoisungwan from ASCOPE updated the progress made on the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline (TAGP), and explained in detail Thailand's natural gas infrastructure.

The discussions then focused on the flexibility of the natural gas market in the region. It was noted that while natural gas exporting countries expect long-term contracts to remain very important in order to support the massive investment in infrastructure, the nature of some future upstream and downstream projects may be able to offer more flexibility. The issue of how to develop Asian benchmark prices for natural gas was also discussed.

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