Projected Consumption of Coal may exceed that of Oil in coming years

Although in the eye of the public there are numerous strategies being developed in order to shift away from coal dependency in certain nations, the International Energy Agency states (in their Medium-Term Coal Marker Report – MCMR) that coal consumption will be on the increase  and will meet and possibly surpass that of oil consumption in the coming years. With the projection made within the report, the IEA states that by the year 2017 coal consumption will stand at 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (btoe), versus that of oil which stands at 4.40 btoe.

 It is evident that developed countries will wined off from their coal consumption and diversify and implement policies and practices that will reduce coal consumption. For example USA; that has diversified to shale gas; and other countries; that would implement certain strategies and have their growth of coal consumption even out over the years. China and India still seems to be the biggest consumers with continuous growth. The growth of coal consumption therefore will be seen greater within developing countries that are now able to introduce coal powered energy resources as a cheaper alternative.

An Executive Summary is available for this report, and more can be read about this report here.