Burning issue remains as Asia powers to centre-stage for energy use "The rising share of coal in power generation underscores the urgent need to deploy more efficient coal-fired power plants," said Ms van der Hoeven. To achieve this, the IEA estimates that South East Asia needs to spend a vast $1.7 trillion (£1.1 trillion) on improving its energy supply networks alone. Given this challenge in Asia, the ability of the US, the world's largest economy, to be able to export liquefied natural gas is essential if we are to avoid another price crunch. Oil hit $147 a barrel in 2008, partly over fears that the world had already hit a period of peak oil. But with the scale of South-East Asia's thirst for energy becoming apparent to the IEA, it's clear that the world cannot ignore any future energy source, either by unlocking shale gas in rocks in the US, or sucking every last drop of oil from wells deep in the North Sea and in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. The misconception is that traditional energy producers in the Middle East and within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries are opposed to new technology unlocking fresh energy reserves in their traditional markets in North America and Europe. On the contrary, given the scale of the energy supply challenge in Asia and in their own economies, they see new sources of supply as the missing ingredient to the global energy mix. "Greater demand in Asia will require increased supplies, from wherever they come," said Saudi Arabia's long-serving oil minister Ali Naimi during the recent Asian energy "round table" talks in Seoul, South Korea. Mr Naimi's view was echoed by Shell's chief executive, Peter Voser, who flagged up - in a speech given in London last week - the issue of the increased investment in supply required to avoid future price spikes in oil and gas. The importance of tapping every possible new energy source is highlighted by the demand squeeze now being felt in the economies of the Gulf, where the United Arab Emirates is even turning to imports of coal to help meet shortfalls of gas used for power generation. Metals London Metal Exchange week starts today with some of the best minds in commodities expected to provide their outlooks for 2014. Asia will again be a focus for many of the presentations and the figures are staggering. Urbanisation will be a theme for Jonathan Barnes, principal copper analyst at Wood Mackenzie. The latest estimates show that the rate of global urbanisation will increase from 54pc to 59pc by 2025, and that the fastest growth region will be Asia. The metal requirement for this decade's growth is likely to be at least as much as the last decade's for the four main LME metals. It may be less exciting growth, but it is starting from a much bigger base," he will say. Gold dips: China counters reaction to US budget turmoil by granting more licences Gold traders are prepared for more upsets in the market after the surprise reaction to the US budget crisis. The metal's traditional attraction as a safe haven in a squall failed to prevent a $50 (£31) slip. Gold dropped as low as $1,280 per ounce as a weak dollar added to the market turmoil. But by Wednesday, normal service had been resumed and silver even ended up with a small net gain over the two days. The research team at GoldMoney, the precious metals group, offered a series of explanation's for the market's behaviour from "technically driven robots" to a Chinese holiday, but was not convinced by any of them. GoldMoney detected neither panic buying nor selling among its customers, and in trading terms the week was "quiet." Alasdair Macleod, head of research, points out that whatever "games" are played in paper markets, underlying physical demand from Asian markets, led by China, remains strong. GoldMoney customers continued to increase holdings of precious metals stored in Singapore, while China's private-sector appetite for gold continued to outstrip supply. China provided the perfect counter to the US disturbance, ending the week by granting more dealers licences to import and export gold.