Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Jan. 18 -- Australia, New Zealand, and 14 Asian countries have agreed to consider the possibility of establishing a regional fuel stockpile among a number of suggested ways to hold and store oil reserves.
The energy security pact was made this week at the East Asia Summit on the island of Cebu in the Philippines.
It also called for greater use of biofuels and reductions in the cost of renewable energy as part of a bid to cut the region's dependence on fossil fuels.
Attendees at the summit were Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.
The pact acknowledged that oil would still be the mainstay of the various economies of the region for the foreseeable future, but called for more strenuous efforts to find alternatives for the future.
