Oil Consumption




			The growing gap between oil discoveries and production. Each year the human race consumes fossil fuels that took nature millions of years to produce. Since the first discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859, the world has increased its extraction of oil each year, reaching upwards of 20 billion barrels per year, as shown by the black line below. Meanwhile, discoveries of new oil (gray vertical bars below) peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, when discoveries greatly exceeded annual consumption. But discoveries of new oil have gradually declined as consumption continues its inexorable climb upward (the red dots below indicate the EIA’s projection of future growth in oil consumption.) We will never run out of oil, but it will become much more expensive as the easy-to-extract oil is depleted and society begins to monitize the costs of climate change, air pollution and oil dependence.



	(Source: Colin J. Campbell)

Energy Security. The production of oil in the US reached a peak in 1971, and has been declining ever since. As a result, the fraction of net oil imports has been rising, reaching 60% before falling back slightly with the Great Recession of 2008/2009.

(Source: US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration and BP World Energy Report-2009)

Proved Oil Resources (2008)

While 46% of our imported oil comes from Canada, Central and South America and only 22% of imported oil from the Persian Gulf, 55% of oil reserves are in the volatile Middle East, with OPEC controlling approximately 69% of proved global oil reserves.

Distribution of OPEC Oil Resources

Pollution. Oil scarcity and energy security are not our only threats. Today the threats of global warming and urban air pollution add to the imperative to substantially reduce fossil fuel consumption in the decades ahead.


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