ver the past 30 years, Asia has experienced 0 prolonged economic growth at rates unrivaled by any other region of the world. Since the 1970s, this economic expansion has driven Asian energy consumption upward by more than 300 percent, and by 2010 an additional 200-percent increase is forecast. Currently, demand for natural gas is growing faster than any other fuel source and is estimated to more than triple by 2010. For companies seeking business opportunities in natural gas, Asia represents the largest burgeoning market for investment. This is because of Asia's sustained economic growth, the low market saturation of natural gas despite an abundant resource base, and the need for large infrastructure development projects that cannot be funded solely by local sources.
This article focuses on the rapidly emerging East and Southeast Asian economies, whose rapid demographic and economic growth has led to a dramatically higher demand for energy. Natural gas will inevitably play an increasingly important role in satisfying this new demand as a result of its abundance, growth in gas-fired power generation, and the environmental benefits offered by gas. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Over the past decade, annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of these countries (excluding Japan) and their neighbors has averaged 8.5 percent, four times the rate in the West. Rapid economic expansion
Asian Economic Growth
Of the dozen fastest growing economies of the past three decades, eight are in East and Southeast