*

Population growth and the rapid expansion of data centres

are

driving up electricity needs

*

Data centres alone are expected to more than double their

power

demand globally by 2030

*

By Ashley Tang, Sudarshan Varadhan and Florence Tan

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (Reuters) - Energy majors are

pouring money into gas exploration and production in Malaysia

and Indonesia to meet rising power demand from growing

populations and a proliferation of data centres in the region.

The wave of investments come as European majors pivot back

to more profitable conventional fuels as countries embark on

different energy transition paths, while Southeast Asian

governments want more affordable local gas supplies to drive

economic growth and improve energy security.

At the Energy Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur this week,

Shell committed to increasing its investments in

Malaysia by 9 billion ringgit ($2.12 billion) over the next two

to three years, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on

Tuesday.

"Just between now and 2035, gas production in Southeast Asia

is expected to drop by around 20% ... and that needs to be

backfilled," Shell CEO Wael Sawan told the conference.

"And the most viable backfill is, of course, LNG because the

infrastructure is already gas based."

On Monday, French major TotalEnergies acquired

further stakes in Malaysian gas assets from state energy firm

Petronas .

"This is where the population is growing I would say. So

this is where we need more energy," CEO Patrick Pouyanne said.

Italian major Eni and Petronas are pressing ahead

with a planned joint venture to develop gas assets in Indonesia

and Malaysia with a deal expected to be signed by the end of

this year.

Japan's top explorer Inpex ( IPXHF ) has returned to Malaysia and is

working on exploring resources in six blocks offshore Sarawak

and Sabah, on top of developing Indonesia's Abadi LNG project,

CEO Takayuki Ueda told Reuters.

"The demand for natural gas, especially LNG, will actually

be increasing over a longer time after 2040, maybe up to 2050,"

he said.

"Given the current, very uncertain and unpredictable

geopolitical situation, one of the strategies that we are now

taking is local production for local consumption," he added.

ConocoPhillips ( COP ) CEO Ryan Lance told local media that

the U.S. major plans to invest in Sabah after it dropped the

WL4-00 project in Sarawak.

Natural gas or LNG is seen as the fuel for the region to

replace coal and reduce emissions, while gas-fired power plants

can also provide a stable power source for data centres.

Petronas CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz said the

firm is working to serve a surge in power demand from data

centres which is expected to more than double to 945 terawatt

hours globally by 2030.

"The entire energy systems at our disposal are now working

to serve this surge in demand," he said.

S&P Global vice chairman Daniel Yergin said gas now has a

much bigger profile than it did a couple years ago.

"Countries are not going to be able to generate the

electricity they need for growth and for data centres without a

bigger role for natural gas," he added.