[Paul330d]

I had often wondered what the answer to the question "how much oil is used in the world in a 24-hour period" was. Well, I was just watching a BBC news reoprt on BP's latest profits and apparently that's it: 82 million barrels a day. Holy crap

[vladinecko]

now, for all you ethanol advocates, imagine how much corn we'd need to grow to accommodate these needs...

[bavarian19]

Originally Posted by vladinecko

now, for all you ethanol advocates, imagine how much corn we'd need to grow to accommodate these needs...

I ate some good corn off the grill last night... its much better in me than in my car...

[06alpine325icm]

hahaha

[Squawks]

Old news and that number is not very surprising. Examining the number is much more interesting.

For example, the world's estimated population today stands at 6.5 billion. If we use 82 million barrels of oil a day, that amounts to using about 0.5 gallons of oil per person. Now, assuming that out of today's 6.5 billion the typical family is composed of ~2.5, that's only 1.25 gallons of oil per family.

Now, that's just crude oil. Oil goes through various refinement to garner various fuels to power various purposes. A/C for homes and businesses, electricity, water/sewage processing systems, you name it.

1.25 gallons of oil per family? What's more interesting is that this is obviously not true. Why? I bet all of you guys guzzle much more than a gallon of gas *on a single day*. Also take note that a gallon of oil is not the same as a gallon of gas - gas is the refined product of oil. So, in reality, consumption of a gallon of premium gas in your BMW consumes more than a gallon of crude oil pumped from Iraq.

So how can we guzzle so much gas when we're allocated about 1.25 gallons of oil per family? The simple answer is that the USA consumes a whopping 30% of the world's daily consumption. Germany consumes 3%. Canada 2.6%. Japan 7.1%. China 6.4% (and growing). UK 2.7%. The entire continent of Africa: under 2%.