America's Oil Consumption Is Rising, Not Falling, Outpacing China's

[NickB79]

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140714/americas-oil-consumption-rising-not-falling-outpacing-chinas

U.S. oil demand reversed course in dramatic fashion in 2013, as the nation's growth in crude consumption outpaced perennial leader China for the first time since 1999, according to oil company BP's annual compendium of world energy statistics.

The U.S. increase follows two years of declines, and dampens hopes that the world's largest oil guzzler was permanently reining in its appetite for crude. The nation's oil use rose by 400,000 barrels per day to a daily draw of 18.9 million barrels; China's oil consumption grew by 390,000 barrels a day, to 10.8 million barrels a day, according to the BP figures released last month. "Are these data points a harbinger of things to come or just an aberration?" asked Christof Rühl, group chief economist at BP. "Too early to tell is the appropriate response."

Rühl said the rise in U.S. oil demand stemmed from industrial users of petrochemicals and other oil byproducts, a trend triggered more by a flood of cheap domestic oil supplies than by overall economic growth.

Motorists also played a role in the rise, however. In 2013, the nation's demand for gasoline rose for the first time since 2007, ticking up to 8.8 million barrels per day—despite government efforts to cut gasoline use by mixing more ethanol into every gallon of the fuel, data from the Energy Information Administration show.

USA! USA! USA!

[Warpy]

1. The biggest institutional guzzler of petroleum is the combined US military.

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/smart-transportation-solutions/us-military-oil-use.html

There is another reason to put them on a diet.

[NickB79]

2. Odd our oil consumption would increase as we end our wars then. NT

[Warpy]

3. They are in peacetime, too

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. The US military uses 360K barrels of oil per day.

Total US use of oil is around 18 million barrels per day. The US military may be the largest institutional user of petroleum, but the total used is still an insignificant fraction of total US consumption.

[happyslug]

5. About 5% of oil exports are lost before they are imported....

The issue has been what happens to that 5%? The answer seems to be the US Military. If the US gets the fuel outside of the US and ships it to bases NOT in the US, the US does NOT count it as an "Import". The problem is neither does the country that US Base is in. Thus you lose 5% of all oil Exports, for no one "Imports" that oil into their own country. Another example of "Figures don't lie, but Liars Figure".

Thus in 2008 when oil became tight, you saw a big jump in oil prices as the gap between oil PRODUCTION and CONSUMPTION edged to 5%, the CONSUMPTION number is about 5% to small.

[kellywestlund]

6. Need to increase investment in renewable energy technologies

Articles like this one just underline the importance of how important it is to increase investment in renewable energy technologies. The reliance on oil, regardless of the economic issues that may explain increases in consumption, is a transitional solution at best.