Energy Today

Abstract

The energy industry is one of the largest of the world’s industries and one that directly influences the lives of the vast majority of the world’s population. However, the industry’s day-to-day conduct generally receives minimal public attention. Such exceptional events as an embargo on fuel shipments, a sudden rise in fuel prices, a widespread electricity shortage or outage, the rare nuclear accident, or a massive hurricane that affects oil production do make the national news, of course, and often receive prolonged coverage. Yet the more common events such as refinery fires, oil tanker wrecks, pipeline leaks and explosions, and coal-mine disasters attract the attention of only a relatively few, and then too often only in passing. And while the public attention to its activities can be fleeting, the industry is massive. Its size and influence are often overlooked, and the investments required to produce our needed energy are difficult to calculate. Using Exxon-Mobil, the largest of the petroleum companies, as a model, we estimate that the depreciated capital costs for the production of oil, gas, and chemical products derived from them are about $2.5 trillion per CMO. New investments required could be twice as large. A lack of public knowledge and the consequent lack of political will can only exacerbate our general inability to understand the enormity of rapidly changing the resources and technologies this industry employs. We begin our analysis of the state of the energy industry by first distinguishing between primary and secondary sources of energy. Next we examine the overall production of energy by the different primary sources. We then discuss the production and consumption of energy in different regions across the globe. We also look at the per capita consumption in these regions because it is germane to the discussion in chapter 4 of the projections for future energy use. Finally, because more than 40% of primary energy is converted into secondary sources or energy carriers (mainly electricity) before its end use, we survey the different secondary energy sources and their markets.