The World's 10 Most Fuel-Guzzling Countries

Over 58% of the world’s fuel is consumed by just 10 countries. As recently as the 1970’s we began to outstrip more fuel than we could produce and during 2017 we already entered ‘negative equity’ three months earlier than we did 30 years ago. This worrying fact proves our levels of consumption are growing at a considerable amount every year.

Fossil fuels, such as crude oil, are still the planet’s leading source of fuel regardless of renewable energy’s increasing and important role. In fact, crude oil consumption is set to rise from 89 million barrels a day to 105 barrels in 2030 despite its unsustainable and harmful impact on the environment.

The United States is currently the world’s largest consumer of fuel with a staggering 18.96 million barrels of oil being used every day. This equates to 20% of the world’s daily oil consumption and almost double the next highest consumer – and is more than the third and fourth combined. America currently imports just under half of its oil and the rest is produced on home soil.

The rapidly emerging market of China is the second top consumer of oil with approximately 10.5 million barrel used per day. Surprisingly this only accounts for around 20% of the country’s energy as coal is still the overriding source of power.

Neighbouring Japan ranks third, consuming 4.5 million barrels of crude oil a day. Japan stands out as a nation that is extremely reliant on oil exports from overseas.

In the past 20 years India’s intake of oil has increased around three-fold making it the fourth highest consumer. Its usage has risen by 5% with 3.66 million barrels consumed daily.

3.6% of the earth’s total daily oil consumption is taken up by Russia who use 3.49 million barrels a day. During the mid-90’s Russia’s oil usage declined from 4.4mbd to 2.48mbd but by 2011 it had risen again to over 3 million. Russia has recently become the biggest producer of oil in the world.

Brazil is the world’s sixth largest consumer of crude oil with 3 million barrels used every day. Although Brazil is South America’s biggest producer of oil it’s usage has been on the rise since 2008. The country has an astronomical 13.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves however 90% of the production comes from offshore oil fields.

Dropping to 7th as the world’s largest consumer is Saudi Arabia who currently uses 2.96 million barrels per day. The second highest producer of oil in the world, it’s usage has increased more than any other country in the past 30 years.

Germany’s oil consumption stands at 2.43 million barrels a day which makes it the eighth highest in the world and the second biggest in Europe. 2.7% of the world’s oil is used by Germany although it’s usage has seen a decline over the last ten years.

2.43 million barrels of oil are used by Canada every day making it the 9th largest consumer on the planet. 2.5% of the world’s oil consumption comes from Canada and has used over 2mbd since 1999.

The Republic of Korea makes it into the top ten oil consumers using 2.32 million barrels a day. The Republic of Korea has regularly used approximately this amount since 1995 except for 1998 when it dropped greatly to 1.9mbd.