We have a voracious appetite for oil. As industrial production increases, industry needs more energy. It also needs more fuel to transport its products and raw materials. Shops and offices need increasing amounts of energy to provide heat, lighting and air conditioning. Economic growth also brings with it consumers who spend more on energy-hungry leisure activities, such as motoring.
Oil is the biggest single source of the world's energy.
With increasing total demand for energy as the world economy has grown, demand for oil has grown too despite its declining share in the total. Governments raised taxes on oil and introduced incentive schemes to encourage people and business to use alternatives. In the rich countries of the West the trend of declining oil dependence has continued. The result of these changes is that the threefold increase in oil prices in the 12 months after March 1999 has been nowhere near as disruptive for the developed world as it would have been before. Economic growth still depends on increased energy consumption.