China, Russia, India must reshape energy sector: Chinese expert

Beijing, June 28  A continental market with China, Russia and India as key stakeholders can be formed to reshape the global energy sector, a Chinese expert has said.

The three countries can also insist on an Asian pricing system, Xinhua news agency quoted Ren Zhihong of the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences as saying.

Xinhua said that although Asia was home to some of the world's biggest energy suppliers and consumers, it had little say in the pricing of energy products.

At a forum held on Monday and Tuesday in China's Chongqing city, experts, officials and business leaders from across Asia called for a comprehensive energy cooperation mechanism to achieve greater Asian influence on the global market.

Asia was capable of becoming a key player on the global energy market with top buyers like China, Japan and South Korea and top sellers like Qatar and Iran, Liu Qiang with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.

"However, there are energy sellers and buyers but no real market in Asia because a real market involves pricing," Liu said.

Asia needs to build an integrated market throughout the continent as the North America and Europe have done, he added. 

The US West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude of Europe are major benchmarks of oil prices worldwide.

Global energy prices have seen dramatic fluctuations since last year, which show the existing energy pricing system was problematic, added Chen Wenling, chief economist of China Centre for Economic Exchanges.

Certain countries were manipulating the global energy market through hegemony, wrecking havoc in countries that rely on energy production for economic growth, she added.

China and its neighbouring countries can work to set up a mechanism for energy cooperation and pricing, Chen said.

In the long run, a continental market with China, Russia and India as key stakeholders can assert Asia's own pricing system, Ren said.