IEEJ：June 2018○ｃIEEJ 2018
Special Bulletin
A Japanese Perspective on the International Energy Landscape (381)June 21, 20182017 Global Energy Situation Indicated by BP Statistics
Ken Koyama, PhD
Chief Economist, Managing Director
The Institute of Energy Economics, JapanOn June 13, international oil company BP PLC held a presentation meeting in London on
the global energy situation in 2017, releasing its BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2018. As
noted in six past editions of this report (Nos. 94, 135, 177, 224, 276 and 330), the BP statistics areone of the most representative annual international energy supply and demand statistics. Energy
stakeholders in the world refer to the BP statistics known for comprehensive coverage of the latest
data. In the following, I would like to review the 2017 international energy situation based on thedata.
First, primary energy consumption in the world in 2017 totaled 13.51 billion tons of oil
equivalent (TOE) with a robust increase of 2.2% from the previous year. The annual growth topped
the latest 10-year (2006-2016) average increase of 1.6%, exceeding 2% for the first time since 2013.
A basic factor behind the robust growth was the acceleration of global economic growth. According
to the International Monetary Fund, global economic growth stood at 3.2% in 2015 and 2016,
remaining below 3.5% over several years, before accelerating to 3.8% in 2017. Under the firm
economic growth closest to 4% since 2011, global energy consumption posted a brisk increase. The
members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development scored an energy
consumption increase of 1.3%, far slower than a 2.8% rise for non-OECD countries, indicating thatemerging and developing countries drove global energy consumption in the year. Although theOECD’s share of global energy consumption stood at 70% in 1970, the non-OECD share exceeded
50% in 2007 for the first time ever. In 2017, the non-OECD share came to 58.5% against the OECD
share at 41.5%, indicating that the gravity center of global energy consumption was shifting further
to non-OECD countries. Particularly, Asia Pacific energy consumption in 2017 logged a high growthrate of 3.1%, with the region accounting for 63% of the global growth. The Asia Pacific growth wasdriven by China and India. The two countries alone captured 46% of the global growth.
Second, consumption of all energy sources increased in 2017, while growth rates differedfrom source to source. Coal consumption in the year increased by 1.0% from the previous year to3.73 billion TOE for the first increase in four years after continuing to decline for three years from2014. Asian coal consumption firmly expanded as China’s consumption ceased declining. Amongother fossil energy sources, oil and gas scored respective steady growth rates of 1.7% and 3.0%.
Among non-fossil energy sources, renewable energy (excluding hydro) posted a remarkableconsumption increase of 17.0% in contrast to the moderate rises of 1.1% for nuclear and 0.9% forhydro. In 2017, the largest energy source was oil (accounting for 34.2% of total primary energy
consumption), followed by coal (27.6%), natural gas (23.4%), hydro (6.8%), nuclear (4.4%) andrenewable energy (3.6%). Fossil fuels have gradually reduced their share of total energy
consumption but still accounted for as much as 75.2% of the total. Non-fossil energy sources’ share
expanded from 14.5% in 2016 to 14.8% in 2017. While non-fossil sources’ share increased, robust
fossil fuel consumption expansion led global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2017 to1

IEEJ：June 2018○ｃIEEJ 2018
increase by 1.6% from the previous year to 33.44 billion tons. The increase was the largest in fouryears.
By country, the United States remained the world’s largest oil and natural gas consumer,
accounting for 20% of consumption of the two most important goods in international energy trade.
The United States was also the largest oil and natural gas producer. Its oil production in 2017
increased by 5.6% from the previous year to 13.06 million barrels per day after falling due to slack
oil prices in 2016. Its oil production gap with Saudi Arabia as the second largest oil producer (withproduction at 11.95 million bpd in 2017) widened in 2017 as the Middle Eastern oil kingdom
restricted production along with some other oil producing countries. The United States also
expanded natural gas production in 2017 by 1.0% from the previous year to 734.5 billion cubic
meters after reducing it in 2016 for the first time in 11 years. As a result, U.S. natural gas exports
accelerated growth. Particularly, liquefied natural gas exports in 2017 quadrupled from 4.3 billion
cubic meters in 2016 to 17.4 billion cubic meters. The United States thus became one of the major
LNG exporters in the world.
The European Union reduced primary energy consumption for four years on end before
increasing it from 2015. In 2017, its primary energy consumption grew by 1.6%. The increase inrecent years came as the European economy got out of sluggishness and retained annual growtharound 2%. In the EU, consumption increased by 12.0% for renewable energy, by 4.3% for natural
gas and by 1.8% for oil, while decreasing by 1.9% for coal, by 0.9% for nuclear and by 14.1% forhydro. While renewable energy consumption growth was remarkable, natural gas consumption
increased for four years on end from 2017 after decreasing for four years from 2010.
In China, the world’s largest energy consumer accounting for 23% of global consumption,
primary energy consumption in 2017 expanded by 3.1% from the previous year to 3.13 billion TOE.
Chinese primary energy consumption ended its rapid expansion from the 2000s and retained a slow
growth rate of around 1% from 2015 under the so-called “New Normal” economy before posting thelargest rise in four years in 2017. China’s primary energy consumption growth of 85 million TOE in2017 accounted for 34% of the total global growth, indicating that China’s energy consumption trend
exerted great influence on global consumption. China’s consumption of coal as its largest energy
source remarkably scored a 0.5% increase in 2017, ending a three-year straight fall. However, therise was less than the overall primary energy consumption growth of 3.1%, leading coal’s share ofprimary energy consumption to decline from 62.0% in 2016 to 60.4% in 2017. In an
attention-attracting manner, consumption grew by 31.0% for renewable energy, by 16.7% for nuclear
and by 15.1% for natural gas. In the second half of 2017, rapid increases in China’s natural gas
demand and imports attracted global attention. Particularly, its liquefied natural gas imports in 2017
expanded by 47% from the previous year to 52.6 billion cubic meters, making China the world’s
second largest LNG importer after Japan.
In the Middle East as the most important oil and gas supplier in the world, oil production
in 2017 decreased by 250,000 bpd or 0.8% to 31.6 million bpd (accounting for 34% of global oilproduction). The decline is attributable to a coordinated production restriction by the Organization ofthe Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC oil producing countries that has continued since
the beginning of 2017. Particularly, production cuts by Middle Eastern OPEC members such as
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar contributed to the decline in regional oilproduction. In Iran on which economic sanctions were lifted upon its nuclear deal with majorcountries, oil production increased by 8.2%. The Middle East expanded natural gas production in2

IEEJ：June 2018○ｃIEEJ 20182017 by 4.9% from the previous year to 65.99 billion cubic meters (accounting for 17.9% of globalproduction), continuing increasing natural gas production. The Middle East remained the world’s
largest oil and LNG exporter, exporting 23.92 million bpd of oil (capturing 35% of global total) and
122.5 billion cubic meters of LNG (accounting for 31%).
In Russia that has participated in the coordinated oil production restriction, oil production
in 2017 decreased by 0.1% from the previous year to 11.26 million bpd. Russia is the world’s thirdlargest oil producer following the United States and Saudi Arabia. Russian natural gas production in2017 recorded a substantial increase of 8.2% from the previous year to 635.6 billion cubic meters,
accounting for 17.3% of global total, the second largest share in the world. Russian pipeline gasexports mainly to Europe took advantage of their competitiveness to increase by 15.4 billion cubic
meters or 7.7% to 215.4 billion cubic meters. Russian gas exports including LNG totaled 231 billion
cubic meters. Russia thus remained the world’s largest natural gas exporter.

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