Key Facts and Figures
Energy Sources
Oil
Total Global Reserves (as of 2006)
- 164.5 thousand million tonnes
Top 5 producing countries
Saudi Arabia 36.3 thousand million tonnes (21.9% of total)
Iran 18.9 t.m.t. (11.4%)
Iraq 15.5 t.m.t. (9.5%)
Kuwait 14.0 t.m.t. (8.4%)
United Arab Emirates 13.0 t.m.t. (8.1%)
Top 5 consuming countries
- USA 938.8 million tonnes (24.1% of total)
- China 349.8 m.t. (9.0%)
- Japan 235.0 m.t. (6.0%)
- Russian Federation 128.5 m.t. (3.3%)
- Germany 123.5 m.t. (3.2%)
Oil reserves/production ratio (December 2006)
- World: 40.5
- U.S.: 11.9
Reserves-to-production (R/P) ratio means that if the reserves remaining at the end of any year are divided by the production in that year, the result is the length of time that those remaining reserves would last if production were to continue at that rate.
10 largest net oil importing countries to the U.S. (as of January 2008)
- Canada (1,944 thousand barrels per day)
- Saudi Arabia (1,479)
- Mexico (1,198)
- Nigeria (1,163)
- Venezuela (1,135)
- Angola (566)
- Iraq (543)
- Algeria (366)
- Ecuador (247)
- Kuwait (239)
One gallon of gas produces 19 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Learn More> How gasoline becomes CO2
Natural Gas
Total Global Reserves (as of 2007)
- 181.5 trillion cubic metres
Top 5 producing countries
- Russian Federation 612.1 billion cubic metres (21.3% of total)
- USA 524.1 b.c.m. (18.5%)
- Canada 187.0 b.c.m. (6.5%)
- Iran 105.0 b.c.m. (3.7%)
- United Kingdom 80.0 b.c.m. (2.8%)
Top 5 consuming countries (2006)
- USA 619.7 billion cubic metres (22.0% of total)
- Russian Federation 432.1 b.c.m. (15.1%)
- Iran 105.1 b.c.m. (3.7%)
- Canada 96.6 b.c.m. (3.4%)
- United Kingdom 90.8 b.c.m. (3.2%)
Amounts of natural gas consumed by the U.S., by purpose
(measured in trillions of cubic feet)
- Electricity production:* 6.2 Tcf (28.4% of the total)
- Residential heating: 4.4 Tcf (20.4%)
- Industrial sector: 6.6 Tcf (30.0%)
Coal
Reserves (measured in million short tons)
- U.S.: 270,718 m s/t
- China: 126,215 m s/t
- World: 1,000,912 m s/t
Coal R/P ratios (December 2006)
- World: 147
- U.S.: 234
- China: 48
- Russian Federation: 500+
The U.S. and coal
- The U.S. burned over a billion tons of coal in 2007
- The U.S. emitted 2.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2007
Nuclear
Number of Plants
- World: 439
- U.S.: 104
Countries generating the largest percentage of their electricity in 2006 from nuclear energy
- France, 78.1% of country’s total electricity
- Lithuania, 72.3%
- Slovakia, 57.2%
- Belgium, 54.4%
- Sweden, 48.0%
- Ukraine, 47.6%
- Bulgaria, 43.7%
- Armenia, 42.0%
- Slovenia, 40.3%
- South Korea, 38.6%
- Hungary, 37.7%
- Switzerland, 37.4%
- World 15.2%
- U.S. 19.4%
Renewables
Biomass
- Ethanol produced in the U.S. each year: 4,855 million gallons
- World production of ethanol: 13,489 million gallons
- Biodiesel produced: 32 trillion Btu
Wind
- Electricity net generation, 2006: 26,589,137 thousand kwh
Solar photo voltaic (PV)
Current efficiency
- Single crystal 17%
- Polycrystalline 15%
- Amorphous silicon 10%
- Thin film 9-12%
Cost: 40 cents per kwh
Economics of Electricity Production
Operating costs
- Biodiesel: 40-80 cents/liter
- Coal: 2-3 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh)
- Ethanol: 25-30 cents/liter (sugar); 40-50 cents/liter (corn)
- Geothermal heating/cooling: 0.5-2 cents/kwh
- Hydro: 0.5-1.5 cent per kwh
- Natural gas: 5-8 cents per kwh
- Nuclear: 1-2 cents per kwh
- Solar PV: 30-50 cents per kwh
- Solar Thermal: 15-30 cents per kwh
- Wind: 6-8 cents per kwh
By 2010, appliances in standby mode will be responsible for 20% of an
average household utility bill.
Cited Material
- BP Statistical Review of the World 2007
- Department of Energy
- EIA
- Electric Power Research Institute
- Facts on Renewables: REN21
- How Gasoline Becomes CO2, Slate.com
- National Commission on Energy Policy