The International Energy Agency (IEA) requires member states to establish emergency reserves of crude oil but has no immediate plans to do the same for natural gas. It has encouraged members to bolster security in the gas sector in light of rising tensions in the Middle East but is not looking to set up gas reserves, said Keisuke Sadamori, the organization’s head of energy markets and security.
Speaking at a press briefing on the sidelines of an LNG conference in Tokyo, Sadamori said that IEA’s chief roles in the gas sector were to help ensure the transparency of world LNG markets and to carry out market analysis. The organization’s gas policy focuses on these goals, even though it does not rule out the possibility of future discussions on emergency gas reserves, he said.
“We have been advocating the need for flexibility in the [LNG] market on the supply and demand side and flexible pricing systems [that] reflect regional supply and demand balance,” he said. “We believe it is our duty to implement this direction, which [was] mandated by IEA ministerial meetings back in 2015.”