Coal accounts for 30pct of energy consumption - BP

Tuesday, 14 Jun 2011

Argus quoted BP said in its latest Statistical Review of World Energy released recently that coal share of global energy consumption rose to 29.6% last year the highest since 1970 and up from 25.6% a decade ago.

BP said coal consumption grew by 7.6% in 2010 the fastest growth rate since 2003. China which overtook the US as the world largest energy consumer saw its consumption grow by 10% and consumed nearly half of the global coal total of 3.55 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.

The next largest consumer was the US with 524.6 million toe or 14.8% of the world consumption followed by India with a 7.8% share of the total. Even Europe showed coal consumption growth of 3.8% within the EU.

BP said global coal production grew by 6.3% with China again leading the way with a 9% increase YoY to 3.24 billion tonnes. The US was the second-largest producer with 984.6 million tonnes followed by India Australia, Russia and Indonesia. But production fell by 1.1% in the EU although the UK production was up by 1.8% to 535.7 million tonnes which helped explain the relative strength of European coal prices.

(Sourced argusmediagroup)