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BP Has Released the 2012 Statistical Energy Review |
21 June 2012by Betül Buke Karaçin, USAK
Each year, BP prepares one of the most comprehensive and globally consistent data bases which assess the general trends in energy market. Also, last week, 61th BP 2012 Statistical World Energy Review was released. This year, the report is quiet significant as 2011 was certainly a difficult year for the both energy consumers and producers. The report demonstrates how the global energy market has begun to change, and also gives signals of further possible developments will be occurred in the coming decades.
The report starts with highlighting the importance of two events that notably affected world energy market in 2011. One is the Arab Spring and the other is the Fukushima disaster happened in Japan, which all these events considerably affected the prices, production levels in the energy market. According to the report, conflicts arose in Arab world notably led to negative consequences in energy sector. Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley said that “the tumultuous events of the ’Arab Spring‘ shook energy markets and underscored the importance of maintaining spare capacity and strategic stockpiles for dealing with supply disruptions. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a humanitarian disaster; and one with immediate implications – in Japan and around the world –for nuclear power and other fuels. Oil prices hit an all-time record high.”
According to the report, global energy consumption grew by 2.5% in 2011; despite this number was 5.1% in 2010. However, the center of gravity for world energy consumption has begun to change as shifted from OECD countries to emerging countries. The report noted that emerging economies, especially Asian countries, accounted for all of the net growth in energy consumption, and demand in the OECD countries fell down. Consumption in OECD countries fell by 0.8%; the emerging economies had the all growth record as China itself accounted for 71% of overall world’s energy consumption growth in 2011.
The report indicated that fossil fuels with their 87% market share still have a dominant position in overall energy consumption. Moreover, despite the negative consequences of Arab Spring occurred in Middle East, oil disruption compensated by the production increase in Libya, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Therefore, annual global oil production increased by 1.1 million b/d in 2011.
Furthermore, 2012 Statistical World Energy Review shows that oil with the share of 33.1% has continued to remain the world’s leading fuel. Despite oil has a dominant market share, the consumption portfolio is changing as the rate of coal in consumption has begun to accelerate. The report noted that coal consumption grew by 5.4% in 2011, and coal now accounts for 30.3% of total energy consumption, which is the highest share since 1969. However, such an increase in coal consumption brought adverse consequences as rate of carbon emission also soared in 2011. According to the report, global carbon dioxide emissions increased by 3%, driven primarily by rise in coal consumption.
Considering nuclear and renewable energy, the report indicated that renewable energy results had mixed results in 2011. Despite the importance and urgency of renewable energy increasing, there was a limited growth achieved in 2011. The nuclear energy experienced the largest decline as worldwide nuclear output fell by 4.3%, with the sharp declines in Japan (-44.3%) and Germany (-23.2%). The report also indicated that biofuel and hydroelectric production was stagnated, but in contrast, renewable energy used in power generation grew by an average 17.7%, as crucial growth achieved in wind and solar energy generation. However, the overall share of renewable energy still very low as today accounts for only 2.1% of global energy consumption. |
21 June 2012
Journal of Turkish Weekly
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