We all know the United States is the top consumer of oil. But I started wondering who comes next, and who’s after that? Here are the top 15 users of oil in 2010, according to the CIA World Factbook. I also added some data about oil imported each day. It’s not clear why some nations import more oil than they use.
The European Union, of course, includes Germany and France, which also are listed separately in the chart.
Top users of oil worldwide - barrels per day
| Rank | Nation | Population | Oil consumed | Oil imported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 313,232,044 | 19,150,000 | 10,270,000 |
| 2 | European Union | 492,387,344d | 13,730,000 | 8,613,000 |
| 3 | China | 1,336,718,015 | 9,189,000 | 4,753,000 |
| 4 | Japan | 126,475,664 | 4,452,000 | 4,394,000 |
| 5 | India | 1,189,172,906 | 3,182,000 | 3,060,000 |
| 6 | Russia | 138,739,892 | 2,937,000 | 42,750 |
| 7 | Brazil | 203,429,773 | 2,654,000 | 720,000 |
| 8 | Saudi Arabia | 26,131,703 | 2,643,000 | 83,150 |
| 9 | Germany | 81,471,834 | 2,495,000 | 2,671,000 |
| 10 | South Korea | 48,754,657 | 2,251,000 | 3,074,000 |
| 11 | Canada | 34,030,589 | 2,209,000 | 1,088,000 |
| 12 | Mexico | 113,724,226 | 2,073,000 | 496,000 |
| 13 | France | 65,312,249 | 1,861,000 | 2,220,000 |
| 14 | Iran | 77,891,220 | 1,845,000 | 297,100 |
| 15 | United Kingdom | 62,698,362 | 1,622,000 | 1,450,000 |
Be nice to see population data with that. China won’t be that low much longer, and that’s when the U.S. will lose its last bit of influence (we have only economic influence thanks to 2000 – 2008). We have two options – start converting our energy consumption to local, natural gas so when China becomes the largest global consumer of oil we don’t care….or watch it happen and wonder how our economy will survive when the world starts pricing oil in yuan instead of dollars and the world bows to Chinese economic pressures instead of the U.S. Hollywood already alters story lines with the Chinese market in mind….when was the last time you saw a Chinese villain? China won’t allow movies in China that portray them poorly, and that is a huge market to lose. If you don’t favor reducing oil consumption for environmental purposes, you should for economic and national security reasons.
Brian, I added the population figures. Thanks for the suggestion.