The world’s total energy demand is expected to be about 335 MBDOE in 2030 – an increase by more than 50 percent compared with today’s demand. According to ExxonMobil’s outlook of worldwide economic growth and energy demand – Energy Outlook – oil and gas will be the primary energy sources to the year 2030. Fossil fuels and coal will account for 80 percent of the world’s total energy demand.

Oil demand is projected to grow at an annual rate of about 1.5%, while natural gas will grow at a 2.2% annual rate. Oil and gas demand will account for about 60% of total energy demand throughout the outlook period.

Coal is estimated to grow at an annual rate of about 1.7%. We expect increased emphasis on the development of economical clean-burning coal technology. The main reason for the growth of coal is the fact that the world’s two most populous countries, China and India, have vast coal resources. China plans e.g to build more than 500 electricity plants based on coal to meet the increasing energy demand following the country’s rapid economic development.

We expect wind and solar growth of about 10%, mainly because of subsidies and related mandates.  Even so, by 2030, the share of wind and solar power in total energy demand will only begin to approach 1%.

Technology advances remain critical to increasing future oil and gas supplies. New technology is required to increase the recovery rate of oil and gas, as well as making it possible to drill wells in increasingly deeper waters, and to produce oil and gas reserves which are hardly profitable to develop today.

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