The principal consumer countries are, without any surprise, the developed countries of North America, Europe and Asia. The grand champion of oil consumption: the United States. With a little less than 5% of total world population, America consumes a quarter of all the oil produced each year
and their consumption keeps growing: +22% since 1990, slightly less than the world average.
Among the developed countries, there are very heavy consumers in terms of quantity per inhabitant (the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium) and consumers who are more reasonable, like the major European countries, where each inhabitant consumes on average half as much oil as the largest consumers.
In Asia, consumption is exploding.
Chinese consumption has almost tripled in 15 years and is not going to slow down.
In this period, the consumption in the whole of the Asia-Pacific zone has exceeded that of the North American zone. With an average 78 % increase in 16 years, Asia has become the new oil-consuming giant. But who can blame these developing countries for wanting to offer their populations the same comforts as those available to the rich countries? Even more so since, on average, an inhabitant of China consumes 13 times less oil than an American and an Indian 32 times less.
The principal oil producing countries in 2006 are the following :
| Country |
Production 2006 ** (thousands of barrels/day) |
Growth in production over 10 years |
Year of maximum production |
| United States |
7,337 |
- 15% |
1970 |
| Mexico |
3,683 |
+ 12% |
2004 |
| Canada |
3,211 |
+ 32% |
Growing |
| Venezuela* |
2,786 |
- 12% |
1997 |
| Brazil |
2,118 |
+ 112% |
Growing |
| Argentina |
774 |
- 3% |
1998 |
| Ecuador |
538 |
+ 35% |
Growing |
| Colombia |
535 |
- 15% |
Growing |
| Norway |
2,777 |
- 14% |
2001 |
| the United Kingdom |
1,632 |
- 42% |
1999 |
| Russia |
9,664 |
+ 60% |
Growing |
| Kazakhstan |
1,383 |
+ 203% |
Growing |
| Azerbaijan |
646 |
+ 255% |
Growing |
| Saudi Arabia* |
10,659 |
+ 15% |
2005 |
| Iran* |
4,150 |
+ 11% |
2005 |
| United Arab Emirates* |
2,936 |
+ 20% |
Growing |
| Kuwait* |
2,665 |
+ 24% |
Growing |
| Iraq* |
2,014 |
- |
1989 |
| Qatar* |
1,131 |
+ 102% |
Growing |
| Oman |
746 |
- 16% |
2000 |
| Nigeria* |
2,440 |
+ 22% |
2005 |
| Algeria* |
2,124 |
+ 53% |
Growing |
| Libya* |
1,810 |
+ 25% |
Growing |
| Angola* |
1,435 |
+ 102% |
Growing |
| Egypt |
675 |
- 28% |
1996 |
| China |
3,673 |
+ 17% |
Growing |
| Indonesia* |
1,088 |
- 33% |
1996 |
| Malaysia |
718 |
- 1% |
2004 |
| India |
814 |
+ 11% |
Growing |
| Australia |
517 |
- 18 % |
2000 |
* Member countries of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
The principal oil producing areas in 2006 are the following :
| |
Production 2006 ** (thousands of barrels/day) |
Growth in production over 10 years |
Year of maximum production |
| North America |
14,230 |
- 1% |
17 |
| South America |
7,212 |
+ 13% |
8.5 |
| Europe |
5,328 |
- 24% |
6.5 |
| CIS |
12,117 |
+ 72% |
14.5 |
| Middle East |
25,174 |
+ 22% |
31 |
| Africa |
10,344 |
+ 37% |
12.5 |
| Asia |
8,028 |
+ 7% |
10 |
| Total |
82,433 |
+ 17 % |
|
** including condensates extracted from natural gas
Until now, the growth in oil consumption has been met by an equivalent increase in production, despite recent price tensions (in 2004/2005, again in 2007 and above all during the first half of 2008). These tensions should decrease – for a while – as a result of the economic crisis which started in the second half-year 2008.
The countries that have made the biggest effort in production terms over the last 10 years are not the members of OPEC (Organisation of Petrol Exporting Countries), who, with 81% of world reserves, only produced 43% of the oil extracted worldwide in 2005. There are two main reasons for that:
- In 1982, in a violent post-oil-crisis rebound, oil prices dropped significantly. That was the year when OPEC decided to install its policy of quotas, giving each of its members a total volume of crude production that should not be exceeded, the aim being to control production and hence prices, and to conserve reserves for future generations. This policy has worked well on the whole. It has allowed OPEC to dig less deeply into its reserves than non-OPEC countries, whilst at the same time maintaining relative price stability.
- Certain OPEC countries, in particular those in the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq, possess extremely large reserves, but their production capacities have changed very little for at least 20 years. They have even diminished in Iraq, as a consequence of the embargo which followed the First Gulf War in 1991 and the invasion of the country in 2003. Increasing capacity would necessitate very heavy investments which, for the moment, have not been forthcoming. The result is that for many of these countries, their year of maximum production was at the end of the 90’s.
The increase of oil production will only result from very heavy investment programmes, which have not been launched yet and are now likely to be further delayed by the onset of the economic crisis.
On the other hand, exploration and development of new fields have progressed significantly in several non-OPEC zones (around the Caspian Sea, in the Atlantic Deeps, in Brazil, in Angola,…). However, Angola rejoined OPEC in 2007 and a significant slowing-down can be expected in the rate of growth of production, as a consequence of application of the policy of quotas by the Organisation.
Other countries, both OPEC members (Indonesia) and non-members (the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom, Egypt) have seen their production drop in the last 10 years or towards the end of the 1990’s. For them it is a case of declining reserves: they have probably already attained a production peak (1970 in the United Sates, 1996 in Indonesia and Egypt, 1999 in the United Kingdom and 2001 in Norway) that they will never be able to exceed in the future. Their production will gradually decline in the coming years. These countries have without doubt attained their respective Hubbert peaks.
|