World coal reserves energy consumption

The demand for energy is continually increasing and the highest energy consumption in the world occurs in the United States. In 1989 consumption totaled 8.6 x 10 MJ (81.3 x 10 Btu) or 11.7 metric tons of coal-equivalent per capita (85). World recoverable reserves were about 120 times the annual coal production in 1988 and about 10 times that for the additional reserves beheved to be in place (1). Estimated coal consumption reduces the known recoverable reserves at about 1%/yr. Whereas the use of bituminous coal is expected to continue to increase in terms of tonnage, the percentage of coal used in the United States has stabilized as shown in Table 11. 

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the U.S. and many other countries. In the U.S. coal makes up about 95% of all fossil energy reserves. These reserves could last several hundred years at the current level of coal consumption. Major developing countries such as China and India, which are now using more and more of the world s oil, also have large coal reserves. 

Statistical information on reserves, production, consumption and prices of oil, coal and natural gas The BP Statistical Review of World Energy, BP p.l.c., London, published annually also at www.bp.comjstatisticalreview... 

The energy consumption is growing fast in Asia, and China has become the world s second largest consumer of oil, after the USA. The proved reserves of oil are concentrated in the Middle East (61%) and those of natural gas are also in the Middle East (41%), followed by Russia (23%) [78], Coal is more evenly distributed between the continents. 

SNG from coal is essential to the long term energy supplies of the United States. The extensive gas distribution system is a valuable asset that must be maintained with adequate supplies of natural gas. The ratio of natural gas reserves to consumption indicates the need for alternative sources, such as SNG from coal. Current low natural gas prices will expand consumption, and in the long term, free market economics will eventually force natural gas close to fuel oil value. Depending on the long term world crude oil supplies and price, SNG from coal could become a very attractive alternative, politically and economically. 

The natural gas sources are spread unevenly over the world with almost 70% of the natural gas reserves located in the Middle East, Russia and the Caucasus region as shown on Figure 4. Provided the consumption of primary energy sources is maintained at present level the depletion time is reportedly 60.7 years for natural gas according to BP [3] (40.6 years for oil, and 204 years for coal)1. Although these estimates do not reflect the real source, they confirm that the fossil resources are rather limited and may be depleted within a few generations. 

In the very long term, coal has prospects as can be seen from world reserves of fossil energy and their present consumption rate (Table 47). 

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