LONDON -- The world is now drinking 84 million barrels of oil each day. The figure may be meaningless to most people but to energy planners, security strategists and environmentalists it spells growing disappointment and danger. Why so? Because only a short while ago the figure was 72 million barrels, and a year or so back it was 68 million.
In short, the global appetite for oil is growing at an alarming rate. This surge in oil consumption was not widely forecast. On the contrary, policy planners everywhere have been hoping for, and even predicting, at least a halt in the growth of oil consumption over the next few years.
For obvious reasons the planners desperately want to reduce the dependence of the global economy on the Middle East, where two thirds of known oil reserves are located.