There is a broad, global focus today on energy as an economic, geopolitical and strategic resource. In addition, there is a greater focus than ever before on the impact of energy consumption on the environment. Worldwide, investment in the development and implementation of clean or renewable energy technologies, as well as energy conservation, will be a major priority of governments and industry, subject to fluctuations in the economy and the price of crude oil and natural gas. The emphasis will vary widely from nation to nation, ranging from cleaner ways to burn the world’s immense stores of coal; to the construction of advanced-technology nuclear generating plants that are exponentially safer than older models; to the use of advanced, more cost-effective renewable technologies based on solar, wind and wave power.

Nonetheless, with the exception of hydroelectric power, renewable energy sources remain vastly more costly to implement than fossil fuel-based generators (primarily coal and natural gas). This means that they require significant government subsidies, loan guarantees or incentives in order to cover the capital costs.  As governments in developed economies in Europe, along with the United States, continue to struggle with large deficits and debts, their willingness to back costly renewable energy projects may be dampened significantly. Japan, on the other hand, while facing economic challenges, will maintain a keen interest in alternative energy sources, since it has essentially no fossil fuel supplies of its own and it has changed strategies due to its nuclear disaster of March 2011.

The most important emerging nations are investing heavily in alternative energy sources, while continuing to use large quantities of fossil fuels. China leads the world in investment in new nuclear plants, and it is installing vast numbers of wind turbines and solar facilities. India is likewise planning multiple new nuclear plants. Brazil continues to be a leader in the low cost production and use of ethanol as a transportation fuel, while developing some of the world’s most important new offshore oil and gas fields at a rapid clip.

Despite immense demand for energy, supply will remain abundant for the foreseeable future. Better science, technology and engineering are being applied to exploration, production, conservation and distribution alike, with great success. Mature economies such as the United States and leading nations in Europe are benefitting greatly from the world’s rapidly growing supplies of natural gas (with the growth in supply coming largely from shale) as well as a steady supply of crude oil (with steady growth in unconventional oil production, including shale oil fields and Canada’s tar sands). Conversely, total energy usage in these mature economies is on a path of little to no growth. For example, analysts at BP estimate that American consumption of primary energy sources (such as coal, natural gas and crude oil) declined by a bit more than 1% from 2000 to 2010.

In China, however, the same measure increased by 134%, while the increase was 77% in India. Emerging economies will burn vast amounts of coal and other fossil fuels while their total energy usage continues to soar. This is where the growth in consumption and related emissions and pollution is essentially unavoidable for the near future, in rapidly rising economies that are adopting modern industrialization, transportation (including millions of new automobiles yearly), business services and housing, with all of the energy consumption that such development demands. Total Chinese primary energy consumption rose by 11.2% in 2010 alone, while India’s grew 9.2% and Brazil’s grew by 8.5%.

Meanwhile, very exciting technologies continue to bolster nearly all facets of the energy sector, from green technologies applied to electricity conservation, to tremendous advances in oil and gas exploration technologies, to highly evolved safer nuclear technologies.  At the same time, many renewable energy uses, such as thin-film solar, concentrated solar and wave power to name but a few, are also making significant advances thanks to substantial improvements in engineering and design. Nanotechnology, the world’s exciting new materials science, is about to find broad applications in energy production and consumption with tremendous results.

As of November 2011, 2,016 drilling rigs were active worldwide, up significantly from the previous year’s total of 1,685. Of that count, 1,859 were in the U.S., up from 1,539 a year earlier, due to growing activity in drilling for both oil and gas in shale. These numbers are from oil field services giant Baker Hughes.

As a whole, the global energy industry is of mammoth proportions. The basics follow below.

Global energy numbers:

Oil: According to the latest data available from analysts at energy giant BP, the world produced 82.0 million barrels of oil daily in 2010, up 2.2% from 2009. This includes unconventional petroleum output from such sources as oil shale, oil sands and natural gas liquids. However, it does not include alternative sources such as oil from biomass and coal derivatives.

Oil consumption in 2010 averaged 87.3 million barrels of oil per day, up by 3.1% from 2009. (In the U.S., consumption of oil rose by 2.0% to 19.1 million barrels daily, accounting for 21.1% of global consumption in 2010, down from 23.9% in the peak year of 2007. China accounted for 10.6%, while India accounted for 3.9% of global consumption.)

Proven reserves worldwide totaled 1.383 trillion barrels at the end of 2010, up from 1.376 the previous year (not including oil sands). OPEC member nations hold the vast majority of those reserves.
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