How can growing energy demand be met without serious environmental issues? (b) GapFill

The world’s oil is not evenly distributed around the world because of the geological conditions needed for its development. The area with the most oil is  the Middle EastAsiaSouth AmericaEurasia. But there is massive demand for oil in countries that only have limited supplies. Therefore, oil is transported by tanker or  pipelineairpalletcruise ship between countries. Having a domestic supply of oil is an advantage because you are not reliant on other countries for supply – this increases energy  insecuritybarrierssecuritybarrels. Overall, the world’s demand for oil has increased as countries  developbuy electric carsbuy computerscut down trees. This is shown by the types of country with the highest demand for oil. While it’s no surprise that the United States is the largest consumer, China,  IrelandIndiaItalyIraq, Russia and Brazil are all in the top ten consumers – all emerging countries in a group called the BRICs.

The price of oil fluctuates for a number of reasons. In 1960, a group of five countries came together to regulate the supply of oil to make sure that the price didn’t drop if countries produced too much. The group is called  EssoOPECOVOTotal, and since its members have increased to include about 80% of the world’s oil production. In 1973, some of the members of this group imposed an oil embargo on countries such as the United States which were in support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The embargo increased the price of oil by  3000600030050%, which led to petrol rationing and other restrictions. This is a classic example of undersupply.

There are other reasons too – wars such as the Gulf War in the 1990s, civil wars and political tensions all alter the supply – either decreasing supply and pushing up the price, or increasing supply and lowering the price. So too does increased demand as  recession bitescountries developcoal becomes cheapernew oilfields are discovered. Sometimes the price falls as demand drops. In April 2020, during heavy travel restrictions across the globe, the price of crude oil was as low as   -4040100-10 US$ per barrel (having reached a peak around 60 US$ in early January). This is the first time that this had ever happened – there was nowhere to store the oil being pumped!