The global oil market is undergoing a major transformation involving shifting trade flows of crude oil and refined products, Maria van der Hoeven, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said Monday.

The U.S. and Canada are expected to substantially increase crude-oil output in the coming decade, making the U.S. , the world's thirstiest oil consumer, less dependent on oil from the Middle East and Africa , Ms. van der Hoeven said during a speech at Singapore International Energy Week.

Meanwhile, economic development and urbanization in Asia will fuel rising demand for energy not just in China , but also in countries such as India , Indonesia and Thailand --and that demand will be filled with imports from the Middle East and Africa , Ms. van der Hoeven said.

As a result, Asian countries will bear more of the risk of a disruption to oil supplies from those less-stable regions of the world, she said. A disruption of supplies from geopolitically sensitive regions would "touch Asia first," she said.

She noted that Western sanctions targeting Iran 's crude-oil exports have been "particularly challenging in Asia ," which is already the main outlet for Middle Eastern crude oil.

Growing output in the West and rising demand in the East will have "clearcut consequences for the midstream and the downstream sectors" that are often overlooked, Ms. van der Hoeven told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

The volume of international trade in crude oil is expected to slip, but trade in oil products is expected to grow in both volume and scope, she said.

In the downstream sector, for example, Asia is set to become the global refining hub as it adds more efficient refining capacity, allowing it to meet the oil-product requirements of the U.S. , Europe and Australia , she said.

China , the world's second-largest oil consumer, could become a new oil-product export powerhouse if all its refinery projects proceed, the Paris-based energy watchdog said this month.

Net refining capacity is expected to grow by around 7 million barrels a day by 2017, she said.

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