The global demand for crude oil (including biofuels) in 2023 amounted to 102.21 million barrels per day. The source expects economic activity and related oil demand to pick up by the end of the year, with forecast suggesting it could increase to more than 104 million barrels per day.

Motor fuels make up majority of oil demand

Oil is an important and versatile substance, used in different ways and in different forms for many applications. The road sector is the largest oil consuming sector worldwide. It accounts for nearly one half of the global demand for oil, largely due to reliance on motor spirits made from petroleum. The OPEC projects global oil product demand to reach 110 million barrels per day by 2045, with transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel expected to remain the most consumed products. Diesel and gasoil demand is forecast to amount to 30.1 million barrels per day in 2045, up from 27.6 million barrels in 2021. Gasoline demand is forecast at 27.6 million barrels by 2045.

Beyond oil - efforts made by an industry looking to cut carbon intensity

Despite oil producing bodies such as the OPEC seeing continued importance for crude oil in the future, efforts have been made within the energy industry in finding an alternative to the fossil fuel. One such alternative generating great enthusiasm is hydrogen. The most abundant chemical element in the universe has become of particular interest due to its potential as an energy carrier. Similar to oil, it may serve as a feedstock or main ingredient for transportation fuels, energy generation and storage, and also chemicals production. While today it is mainly won from natural gas conversion (so-called grey hydrogen), most investments are aimed at making hydrogen production through electrolysis using renewable electricity (green hydrogen) more cost efficient. Oil refineries and ammonia production facilities are main consumers of hydrogen, with the transportation sector accounting for a much lesser share.

The 2025 annual OPEC oil price stood at 78.1 U.S. dollars per barrel, as of February. This would be lower than the 2024 average, which amounted to 79.86 U.S. dollars. The abbreviation OPEC stands for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and includes Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates. The aim of the OPEC is to coordinate the oil policies of its member states. It was founded in 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq. The OPEC Reference Basket The OPEC crude oil price is defined by the price of the so-called OPEC (Reference) basket. This basket is an average of prices of the various petroleum blends that are produced by the OPEC members. Some of these oil blends are, for example: Saharan Blend from Algeria, Basra Light from Iraq, Arab Light from Saudi Arabia, BCF 17 from Venezuela, et cetera. By increasing and decreasing its oil production, OPEC tries to keep the price between a given maxima and minima. Benchmark crude oil The OPEC basket is one of the most important benchmarks for crude oil prices worldwide. Other significant benchmarks are UK Brent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), and Dubai Crude (Fateh). Because there are many types and grades of oil, such benchmarks are indispensable for referencing them on the global oil market. The 2024 fall in prices was the result of weakened demand outlooks, primarily from China.

1 Stock change assumptions reflect the development of Strategic Petroleum Reserves SPR in some non OECD countries, and the rising need for stocks as refinery capacity expands These rates of rise in stocks will eventually slow, as growth in SPR slows as does refinery expansion The medium term pattern eventually reverts, in the long term, to historical average behavior 2 For Indicators, like Long term real GP growth rates which is given in the date range 2014 2020, 2020 2030, 2030 2040 has been considered as last date of the range For example, 2014 2020 has been considered as 2020

This table shows the supply and consumption of petroleum products and crudes as a balance sheet.

Petroleum products include the fuels LPG, motor gasoline and diesel oil. The balance includes products used for processing or consumption in the Netherlands as well as those intended for transit.

Crudes are crude oil, natural gas liquids and additives (intermediates for motor gasoline and transport diesel). Separate balance sheet items are available for feedstocks for processing in the Netherlands and for feedstocks for the transit trade. The difference between the two flows is that import tax is paid for products destined for production in the Netherlands, while it is not paid for transit goods.

The following standard densities are used to convert from kg to liters of Gasoline, Diesel and Autogas delivered including excise duty: Petrol 0.75 kg/l, Diesel 0.836 kg/l and LPG 0.535 kg/l.

This table replaces the next tables:

Crude balance sheet; supply, consumption and stock, 1944 - April 2021 Petroleum products balance; supply, consumption and stock, 1946 - April 2021 Motor fuels; sales in petajoules, weight and volume, 1946 - April 2021

See section 3.

Data available: From January 2015

Status of the figures: - up to and including 2022 definite. - 2023 are revised provisional. - 2024 are provisional.

Changes as of February 26th of 2025: Figures for December 2024 have been added.

Changes as of February 3rd of 2025: Figures for November 2024 have been added.

Changes as of December 31st of 2024: Figures for October 2024 have been added.

Changes as of November 29th of 2024: Figures for September 2024 have been added.

Changes as of November 19th of 2024: This table has also been revised for 2015 to 2021 as a result of new methods that have also been applied for 2022 and 2023. This concerns the following components: final energy consumption of LPG, distribution of final energy consumption of motor gasoline and sector classification of gas oil/diesel within the services. This concerns changes of a maximum of a few PJ.

When will new figures be published? Provisional figures: in the second month after the month under review. Definite figures: not later than in the second following December.

Gasoline increased 0.22 USD/GAL or 10.89% since the beginning of 2025, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Gasoline - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on March of 2025.

Reduction of CO2 emissions will require a transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. Expansion of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol1, 2 provides one near-term scalable solution to reduce CO2 emissions from the global transport sector. In contrast to corn ethanol, the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol system may offset 86% of CO2 emissions compared to oil use, and emissions resulting from land-use change to sugarcane are paid back in just 2–8 years3, 4. But, it has been uncertain how much further expansion is possible given increasing demand for food and animal feed, climate change impacts and protection of natural ecosystems. We show that Brazilian sugarcane ethanol can provide the equivalent of 3.63–12.77 Mb d−1 of crude oil by 2045 under projected climate change while protecting forests under conservation5 and accounting for future land demand for food and animal feed production. The corresponding range of CO2 offsets is 0.55–2.0 Gigatons yr−1. This would displace 3.8–13.7% of crude oil consumption and 1.5–5.6% of net CO2 emission globally relative to data for 20146, 7.

We created a probabilistic classification model using the nonparametric machine learning technique 'Random Forests' for oil and gas development potential from low (0) to high (1) across the western US. The six predictor variables used in the model were: geophysical data showing aeromagnetic, isostatic gravity, and Bouguer gravity anomalies, geology, topography and bedrock depth. Our binary response variable was geospatial point data on producing and non-producing oil and gas wells. Our estimates provide insights into the trajectory and eventual endpoint of oil and gas development, but the rate and exact location of development will be subject to additional factors not considered such as market demand, the capacity to transport oil or gas to consumers, and federal air and water quality laws (e.g. Clean Air Act, climate change legislation).

Natural gas increased 0.21 USD/MMBtu or 5.84% since the beginning of 2025, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Natural gas - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on March of 2025.