Figure 1: Global Oil Production and Consumption by Year
Figure 2: Gobal Oil Production (left) and Consumption (right) by year
Overall, the production and consumption of oil has steadily increased because as countries develop and industrialize, their oil consumption grows with their economy. Today, China’s and India’s economies have been growing very rapidly, and the impact on oil demand has already begun. Developed countries will eventually have to increase their oil-consuming efficiency in order to decrease their demand, and are likely to adapt faster if oil prices continue to rise.
It is clear from Figure 2 that the highest oil producers and consumers are mostly MEDCs (USA, Canada, Russia, China). Saudi Arabia would usually be considered an LEDC. However, the fact that it produces such a large amount of oil gives it an MEDC characteristic. MEDCs are the main producers and consumers due to the fact that they not only have advanced technology that allows them to invest in its production, but also a large sum of money that permits them to purchase it and consume it.
This increase in global production and consumption of oil has had both dramatic geopolitical and environmental impacts on countries around the world. Environmentally, some countries have suffered oil-related and carbon dioxide hazards that have affected rain forests, climate, vegetation, and other ecosystems in general. For example, the Amazon Defense Coalition in Ecuador claims that Chevron holds the record for the world’s largest oil-related contamination in the populated Amazon rainforest. Facing of over $27 billion dollars in damages, Chevron has been charged for poisoning an area of almost the size of Rhode Island with 18.5 billion gallons of toxic ‘produced water’ (water emerging from drilling activities), which is about 450 times the amount of contamination estimated to have been spilled in the Gulf of Mexico by British Petroleum. Canada also faces environmental problems due to increasing consumption of oil. ‘Bitumen’ (naturally occurring mixtures of water, sand, and dense oil found in the tar sands of Canada) is a type of oil sand found in Canada. Making liquid fuels from these oil sands requires a large amount of energy for steam injection and refining, and is a process which generates approximately 3 times the amount of greenhouse gases per barrel. A spokesman for FairPensions says: “Every day the extraction process uses enough natural gas to heat 3.2m Canadian homes for a day. Tar sands are a significant factor in Canada's failure to meet its Kyoto protocol targets." Canada is therefore faced with not only an increasing amount in the production of greenhouse gases, but also a huge constant loss of energy.
Geopolitically, governments fear that they will be put under pressure due to the rise in demand of oil, and that countries might start looking for oil in land that does not belong to them. Greenland and Iraq are both very good examples of this. In Greenland, there is a growing concern in the rising demand of oil. The rate at which oil is consumed is already much higher than that at which it is produced, or extracted (Figure 1). However, they are worried that sometime in the next 30 years, demand could outstrip supply by so much that it will put governments under much pressure, and might eventually force them into looking for oil in inhospitable areas, such as in deep waters, or in other countries. The Iraq is an example of this, since it was this first century’s “resource war” - a war in which two powerful countries use force and violence to secure valuable commodities. Sir David King, UK government’s chief adviser, says: “With population growth, natural resources dwindling, and seas rising due to climate change, the squeeze on the planet will lead to more conflict.”
In conclusion, the global production and consumption of oil has been progressively rising for the past two decades due the rising demand of oil. And consequently, several countries around the world have been dealing with its environmental and geopolitical outcomes. Countries such as Canada and Ecuador have been forced to deal with oil spills and the contamination of their rain forests, while others such as Iraq and Greenland have had to tolerate the burden of “resource wars” or are otherwise concerned with the rising demand for oil and the unpleasant outcomes it could lead into.
"The result of oil exploration, extraction and spills is that many people in the have to drink, cook with, and wash in polluted water; they have to eat contaminated fish – if they are lucky enough to still be able to find fish – and farm on spoiled land."- Kate Allen of Amnesty International