According to Mr. Verleger, what is the most important change in the global energy economy in 30 years?

Largely because of rapid growth in Asia, world oil consumption is growing faster than production. Supply short fall, combined with sharply higher oil prices, is spurting the construction of new pipelines to get oil and gas to world markets. Most of them would transport Middle Eastern or Caspian Sea oil to seaports, from which it would head west to Europe and America or east to China and India. The two countries now account for 10 percent of global oil consumption. The rise of China and India, says Mr. Verleger, is the most important change in the global energy economy in 30 years. Oil analysts stress that despite rising demand there is at present no shortage of oil and gas, but the doubling of oil and gas prices over the past two years has made some expensive and long delayed pipelines economically feasible. One such proposal involves political adversaries India and Pakistan, whose fast growing economies require increasing supplies of energy. At the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland in January, Pakistan’s prime minister unveiled a proposal to build a gas pipeline from the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and on to India.