Oil Demand, Consumption, Petrol – Petroleum Consumption, Oil Imports

Worldwide oil demand reached the 30 billion mark in 2008. According to the BP Review of World Energy, the global rate of oil consumption is increasing by approximately 1.3% annually.

Oil Demand: Major Consumers

Oil demand escalated across the world, especially in the emerging economies, due to increased industrialization. The growth rate of oil consumption in China and India, for example, is 9% and 3% per annum. The share of oil consumption has also increased among oil producers such as the US and Russia. The US consumes approximately one-fourth of the global oil supply. The per-capita consumption of the nation is six times the global average per capita consumption of four barrels per annum.

The top ten oil consuming nations (as per the CIA’s World Factbook, 2008):

Country	Consumption (barrels/day)
US	208,000,000
China	6,930,000
Japan	5,353,000
Russia	2,916,000
Germany	2,618,000
India	2,438,000
Canada	2,290,000
South Korea	2,130,000
Brazil	2,100,000
Mexico	2,078,000

Oil Demand: Major Producers and Exporters

The chief oil producing and exporting nations (according to the Energy Information Administration, 2006) include:

• Saudi Arabia: The nation produced about 10.72 million barrels per day, of which it exported 8.65 million barrels per day.
• Russia: The nation produced and exported 9.67 million and 6.57 million barrels each day, respectively.
• Iran: It produced 4.12 million and exported 2.52 million barrels per day.
• Mexico: The country produced over 3.71 million barrels per day, of which it exported 1.68 million barrels per day.
• UAE: The nation produced approximately 2.94 million barrels a day, of which it exported 2.52 million barrels a day.

Oil Demand: Import Data

United States

The nation’s total import in 2007 was approximately 2.032 million barrels/day, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Major sources of the nation’s imports were:

• Canada: 20%
• Virgin Islands: 17%
• Russia: 15%
• Algeria: 11%
• Venezuela: 9%

China

According to The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, China imported over 32% of its total oil consumption in 2004, making it the second largest oil importer in the world, after the US. The nation’s largest source of oil imports in 2006 was Angola (750,000 barrels/day). According to an industry report, China imported 46% of its total oil imports from the Middle East and 32% from Africa.

Japan

Japan has limited oil reserves and relies almost entirely on imports. According to the EIA, the nation’s total import in 2007 was about 5,032,000. Japan imported almost all of this from the OPEC countries. The major sources of total imports were:

• Saudi Arabia: 28%
• UAE: 25%
• Iran: 12%
• Qatar: 9%
• Kuwait: 7%

According to an industry report (Kammen, D., “An Energy Policy for the 21st Century”), the energy sector is the largest industry in the world, accounting for over $3 trillion in annual sales in 2005. This figure for the second largest industry, food, is almost half, at $1.7 trillion.