Energy Study. Reserves, Resources and Availability of Energy Resources 2012 - Summary
Proportions of non-renewable fuels in production, reserves and resources world-wide at the end of 2011
Source: BGR
The Energy Study 2012 - Reserves, Resources and Availability of Energy Resources is part of the series “DERA Natural Resources Information” (DERA Rohstoffinformationen) issued by the German Natural Resources Agency (DERA). It is an update of the last year’s study and an update of the study “Energy Resources 2009”.
The major share of global primary energy consumption (PEC) today is derived from fossil energy resources. The only effect of the recently overcome financial and economic crisis is seen in the short downturn in consumption in 2009. The overriding trend of an increase in the demand for energy continued unchanged after this blip. Even though not all countries are participating in this global development in the same way, the demand for fossil fuels will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. Ensuring reliable supplies of energy resources is therefore of major significance for each economy dependent on imported natural resources.
A comparison of global annual production of all of the energy resources in 2011 (464 EJ) against the reserves and resources, reveals a relationship of around 1 to 80 to 1,000 respectively (see figure). This means that from a geological point of view, the worldwide reserves and resources of energy commodities can in principle cover the growing demand for energy in the future as well. The question though is whether all of the energy resources individually can always be supplied in adequate quantities to satisfy the demand at any given point in time. This question is particularly urgent given the relatively low resources of crude oil.
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