The 16th International Energy Forum was held at Taj Diplomatic Enclave, New Delhi, India on April 10-12, 2018. The Government of India hosted 90+ delegations including 50 energy ministers, 30 Chief Executive Officers, 12 heads of international organisations and 500+ guests at the 16th biennial International Energy Forum Ministerial Meeting (IEF16) with the support of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea as co-hosts.
The meeting was held under the theme: “The Future of Global Energy Security – Transition, Technology, Trade and Investment”. Providing the opportunity for attendees to discuss relevant issues that currently affect global energy markets, the IEF Ministerial is the largest gathering of energy ministers in the world.
Meeting on the neutral global platform that the IEF provides to strengthen international cooperation on energy through dialogue, the IEF16 focused on how global shifts, transition policies and new technologies influence market stability and future investment and trade patterns in the energy sector. Dialogue among Ministers and industry leaders on how global shifts, new policies and technologies change investment and trade patterns and influence energy market security, facilitate orderly transitions, and accelerate the achievement of shared goals.
On behalf of the IEF16 host country, Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India inaugurated the IEF16 Ministerial Meeting. Prime Minister Modi shared his energy vision as comprising four pillars – energy access, energy efficiency, energy sustainability and energy security. He called for a mutually supportive relationship between producers and consumers. He also called for optimal use of the neutral platform of the IEF to build a global consensus on ‘responsible pricing’ that serves the mutual interests of both producers and consumers.
H.E. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India, H.E. Khalid Al Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and H.E. Sun Xiansheng, Secretary General of the International Energy Forum also addressed delegates at the Inaugural Session, setting the scene for the Forum’s discussions.
Ministerial dialogue was structured in four thematic plenary sessions, and four parallel roundtables focussed on:
- Global shifts: The Future of Global Energy Security – Finding New Balances
- Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – Energy Access and Affordability
- Oil and Gas Market Stability and Change – Investment in a New Era
- Uptake of Clean Technologies: Disruption and Co-existence of New and Existing Technologies – The Way Ahead
Meeting at a time of uncertainty, dynamism and change, IEF16 ministers acknowledged that global energy security is taking on new meanings that have just as much to do with adaptability as energy access, affordability, and inclusive and sustainable growth. IEF16 ministers noted that their presence in New Delhi manifests that, through open dialogue, energy market stakeholders can move forward faster and farther when embracing shared value propositions that benefit all. Noting from contributions by both the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that the fossil fuel sector shall continue to provide around three-quarters of energy demand in 2040, as projected in their main scenarios, IEF16 delegates focused dialogue on the mutual reinforcing role of fossil fuels and clean energy technologies, including renewables calling for reliable, and realistic transformations that all can afford, and rational responses to the global energy challenges we face together.
Delegates took note of the contributions by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), acknowledging that global agreements on shared goals, and energy access concluded under the aegis of the United Nations in 2015, are in the early phases of implementation and that despite progress, collective efforts must be stepped up to achieve universal energy access and alleviate energy poverty by 2030.
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IEF16 delegates focussed on the limited volume of upstream oil and gas sector investments as a consequence of the downward price cycle, and the risks and opportunities that new unconventional production resilience brings to the stability of oil and gas markets globally. Ministers and industry leaders welcomed enhanced dialogue on the role of new and existing energy producers and innovative cooperative arrangements to collectively shoulder the responsibility of maintaining oil and gas market stability and ensure investment moves forward in a timely and cost-effective manner in both short and longer cycle oil and gas projects.
Delegates welcomed the rapid development of new energy technologies and the competitive disciplines a more diverse and vibrant market environment creates for the industry at large. To ensure successful energy sector transformations, IEF16 delegates acknowledged that more dialogue is needed on new policy and technology deployment to facilitate cost-effective transitions between new and existing technologies. Delegates recognised that failure to protect investments of existing assets in favour of new technologies will deter the effective mobilisation of capital in new projects as well.
IEF16 delegates noted that global shifts in energy demand and supply patterns, as well as rapid technology advances alter world energy market dynamics and compel corresponding governance structures including the institutional set up of the IEF energy dialogue to respond to evolving producer-consumer relations. IEF16 delegates also acknowledged that as energy markets are governed by complexity, enhanced dialogue on probable energy pathways will improve market transparency and work to achieve shared goals together. They noted that institutional cooperation has gone from strength to strength to make different outlook projections more comparable, raise the energy dialogue to a higher level and welcomed sharpened focus on reducing differences in historical baseline data, improving fuel type classifications and the modernisation of country classifications.
IEF16 ministers, industry leaders, and heads of international organisations applauded the leadership of the government of India in taking the IEF energy dialogue forward as host of the 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial. Thanking the government of India for its generous hospitality, and the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea for their support as co-hosts, IEF16 delegates took note of the productive outcomes of their dialogue reflected in the concluding statement that H.E. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship presented on behalf of the Government of India.
(Source: IEF)