[mlit]

I'm not sure its really acurate as we use about a quarter of the worlds oil but this chart make is look like we consume more than half. I'm not sure what all they are using to come up with this

[JustaGirl]

Isn't the US government the biggest consumer of oil in the US? That seems to coincide with the start up of the Iraq war. Maybe that's why it was more than the 25% consumption that we have now.

[wisconsin_cur]

I didn't believe it either but now I am slowly being converted.

Most of the information on the web relates to pollution since Peak Oil has not been a big enough issue long enough to create near as many cool graphs for the internet. But to get an idea about the amount of gasoline used as a transportation fuel in the USA take a look at this:



US autos produce a more carbon than most nations... which just goes to suggest that while we may only use 25% of the world's oil we probably use more than 25% of the gasoline.

Where I still have a problem is what is the other 75% that they world uses if it is not gasoline that could make up for a large difference in the statistics as they apply to the USA? Diesel ok but is that enough? Asphalt? I think we use a lion's share of that also? I would love to get the input of others on this question.

[mlit]

Wikipedia says in 2003 the U.S accounted for 44% of world consumption - Wikipedia gasoline so the chart is not that far off.

Its probably only lacking a lot of smaller countries that would make us look slightly better but still way to far up there.

[SILENTTODD]

Oh S**T!! We are F****D!!

I was thinking just today after listening to my fellow coworkers there is no way Americans as a whole, are going to start using oil as effiecently as Europeans (half as much as Americans per capita).

[kpeavey]

The chart is in liters, we use gallons, that must be it.

I'm thinking this chart does not include diesel fuel and other petroleum derivatives. My understanding is about 25% of the worlds oil is used in the US. There is not enough information in that chart to determine the discrepancy. Got a link?

[smallpoxgirl]

I'm thinking this chart does not include diesel fuel and other petroleum derivatives. My understanding is about 25% of the worlds oil is used in the US. There is not enough information in that chart to determine the discrepancy. Got a link?

Yeah. Seems like a discrepancy between gasoline usage and total oil usage.

[ECM]

According to the EIA gasoline supplied in 2003 was 8,935,000 barrels per day.

8,935,000 bbl x 42 gal/bbl x 3.7 L/gal =1,388,499,000 L/day

EIA

[wisconsin_cur]

Where I still have a problem is what is the other 75% that they world uses if it is not gasoline that could make up for a large difference in the statistics as they apply to the USA? Diesel ok but is that enough? Asphalt? I think we use a lion's share of that also? I would love to get the input of others on this question.

You forgot war:

Today (2008) the average American G.I. in Iraq uses about 20.5 gallons of fuel every day, more than double the daily volume consumed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq in 2004. Thus, in order to secure the third-richest country on the planet, the U.S. military is burning enormous quantities of petroleum. And nearly every drop of that fuel is imported into Iraq. These massive fuel requirements—just over 3 million gallons per day for Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Energy Support Center—are a key reason for the soaring cost of the war effort.

link

Wars and occupations burn massive amounts of fuel.

I guess I didn't articulate my intellectual problem well.

I am wondering how the statistic for americans using only 25% of the world's oil can be that low when we use 44% of the gasoline. It is not like we do not also use a lot of diesel and jet fuel, asphalt and chemicals. If we use so much gas it would seem to skew the numbers up unless there is something to balance it, something that the world uses enough of to weigh the US use of oil statistic down to 25%. Add in war and it seems even harder to get us down to 25%.

[Gerben]

One factor could be that a lot of oil is used to produce goods. The US is a net importer of such goods. Plastics are made up (almost?) entirely of oil.

[wisconsin_cur]

In statistics that tell us how much of of the world's oil is used by what country, is it the end user of the product of the recipient of the crude that is credited as the user?

For example a barrel of crude goes to country x to be refined but is then shipped to country y. Is that barrel credited to x or y? If another barrel goes to country c and is made into plastic crap and then shipped to country u, is the barrel credited to c or u?

What I'm wondering is if the USA doesn't use more than 25% of the world's oil but the statistic is kept artificially low because that crude goes through some other country for some value added process before coming to the United States? If this is the case we import a whole lot more foreign oil than the official numbers reflect. this also means that we are a lot more dependent.

[Micki]

That top first page chart compared US with 20 other nations, not the rest of the world. (Seemed from the post as if this was missed.)