The Oil Drum | Petroleum Demand in Developing Countries

Note: This article was originally written for World Business Magazine in Singapore, and explores one of the themes I covered in my book Power Plays.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that as oil prices rise, developing countries would be less able to afford oil, leaving wealthier countries to bid against each other for increasingly higher-priced supplies. But that is not at all what happened over the past decade, and the trend may give developed countries a reason for concern.

From 2005 to 2010 – a period that saw oil prices rise to record highs – oil consumption in the United States fell by 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd). Other developed regions experienced similar trends. The European Union saw oil consumption drop by 1.2 million bpd, and Japan registered a drop of 900,000 bpd.

Japan was the exception in the Asia Pacific region. Excluding Japan, the rest of the Asia Pacific region increased its oil consumption by nearly 4 million bpd even in the face of the strong oil price increases from 2005 to 2010 (see Figure 1). Over the decade, Asia Pacific oil consumption increased by nearly 7 million bpd.

Figure 1. Demand growth in Asia Pacific (minus Japan) was strong despite escalating oil prices.

Strong Growth in All Developing Regions

But even though the developing countries in Asia Pacific saw a nearly 50% increase in consumption over the decade, it wasn’t even the fastest growing region. That distinction belongs to the Middle East, which added 56% to their oil consumption between 2000 and 2010. The Middle East’s total increase in consumption was smaller than that of Asia Pacific at just under 3 million barrels per day, but that is primarily a function of the relative populations of the regions. OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia saw the strongest demand growth in the region. This is understandable considering that the high price of oil brought a huge influx of cash into oil exporting countries, and countries tend to increase their oil consumption as they become wealthier.

Demand growth was strong in other developing regions as well (see Figure 2). Africa increased consumption over this timeframe by 850,000 bpd, a 35% increase. Consumption in South America increased by 1.2 million bpd, a 26% increase over year 2000 levels. Thus, despite drops in consumption among most developed regions, global oil consumption over the past decade rose by nearly 11 million barrels per day.

Figure 2. Demand fell in developed regions and increased in developing regions.

The trend was clear: As oil prices increased, developed countries reduced oil consumption, while regions that were significantly undeveloped or developing increased oil consumption. Perhaps unsurprisingly—since their revenues would have increased over this time period—oil-exporting regions experienced the greatest percentage increases in consumption. In addition to the Middle East’s 56% increase in oil consumption over the decade, Venezuela saw oil consumption increase by 37%.

Explaining the Demand Changes

But why would developing oil-importing regions have also experienced consumption growth as oil prices climbed to record highs? Consider the change in the consumption habits of the United States and China over the past decade. In 2000, the U.S. consumed 19.7 million barrels of oil per day—25.5 barrels of oil per person per year. By 2010 the population of the U.S. had increased by 10%, but the country’s oil consumption had fallen to 19.1 million bpd—22.6 barrels per person per year.

The trend in China was sharply in the other direction. In 2000, oil consumption in China was 4.8 million bpd, or 1.4 barrels per person per year. In 2010, consumption had grown to 9.1 million bpd, or 2.5 barrels per person per year. Incidentally, if per capita oil consumption in China was as high as it is in the U.S., China would consume more than 82 million barrels of oil per day—an amount equivalent to almost all of the world’s oil production.

Oil demand growth in China, in India, and across Asia and South America in the face of record-high oil prices may at first be counterintuitive. But consider the consumption patterns in developed countries. Developed countries consume a lot more oil than they really need because they have more discretionary consumption. Thus when oil prices rise, consumers in developed countries make a few lifestyle changes—driving fewer miles, buying more fuel-efficient cars, using more mass transportation, etc.—and oil consumption falls.

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