Editorial comment
Look around. It is highly probable that you can see at least one thing that has been derived from petroleum. Be it plastics, medication, or even beauty products, petroleum is everywhere. But why is that?
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Oil has become the life-blood of the human race. It has become so essential to our society that if you were to remove every petroleum-based product from daily life then you’d set the entire human race back by a century.
Currently, it has been estimated that global oil consumption sits around 36 billion bbl/yr,1 with the biggest producers also doubling as the biggest consumers; a club that includes the usual suspects of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the US.2 Considering this, estimates predict that at our current rate of global oil consumption we will have exhausted existing reserves in as little time as 47 years.1 That’s only two generations from now.
It’s not much time. So just how widespread is our use of petrochemicals?
Take, for instance, the daily life of an average person in the UK. They might drive to work or take the bus, but either way road transport alone makes up 57% of national oil consumption. Most petroleum is used as fuel for motor vehicles and this not only makes up a huge portion, but, of course, contributes to a rise in global emissions.
Oil is an inescapable part of our lives. Clothing, beauty products, electronics, and even agricultural fertilizers all contain petroleum products in some form or fashion.3 It is so embedded in our society that its loss would result in massive, worldwide upheaval and change. This diversification explains exactly why countries like the US end up consuming over 20 million bpd of oil, making up 20% of total global consumption.2
But why does this matter?
Because petroleum, and the petrochemical sector as a whole, reaches far further than simple fuel consumption. Fuel for transport is the largest part but it is still only a part, and with fossil fuels being a limited resource, we have to be wary of our consumption. A shift in petrochemical usage is necessary not just because of the ecological impact, but because it is used for far more than fuel. We must prioritise these other uses for oil, or else risk going back to the dark ages.
- worldometer, https://www.worldometers.info/oil/ [accessed 25 June 2025]
- ‘What countries are the top producers and consumers of oil?’, EIA, https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=709&t=6 [accessed 25 June 2025]
- ‘Oil in everyday life’, International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, https://www.iogp.org/workstreams/advocacy/oil-natgas-in-everyday-life/ [accessed 25 June 2025]
