Data

Primary energy consumption from fossil fuels

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What you should know about this indicator

  • Includes commercial solid fuels only, i.e. bituminous coal and anthracite (hard coal), and lignite and brown (sub-bituminous) coal, and other commercial solid fuels. Excludes coal converted to liquid or gaseous fuels, but includes coal consumed in transformation processes. Differences between the consumption figures and the world production statistics are accounted for by stock changes, and unavoidable disparities in the definition, measurement or conversion of coal supply and demand data.
  • Includes inland demand plus international aviation and marine bunkers and refinery fuel and loss. Consumption of biogasoline (such as ethanol) and biodiesel are excluded while derivatives of coal and natural gas are included. Differences between the world consumption figures and world production statistics are accounted for by stock changes, consumption of non-petroleum additives and substitute fuels and unavoidable disparities in the definition, measurement or conversion of oil supply and demand data.
  • Excludes natural gas converted to liquid fuels but includes derivatives of coal as well as natural gas consumed in Gas-to-Liquids transformation. The difference between the world consumption figures and the world production statistics is due to variations in stocks at storage facilities and liquefaction plants, together with unavoidable disparities in the definition, measurement or conversion of gas supply and demand data.
Primary energy consumption from fossil fuels
Measured in terawatt-hours.
Source
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
June 20, 2024
Next expected update
June 2025
Date range
1965–2023
Unit
terawatt-hours

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy analyses data on world energy markets from the prior year.

Retrieved on
June 20, 2024
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024).

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Primary energy consumption from fossil fuels”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “Energy”. Data adapted from Energy Institute. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fossil-fuel-primary-energy [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Primary energy consumption from fossil fuels” [dataset]. Energy Institute, “Statistical Review of World Energy” [original data]. Retrieved October 13, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fossil-fuel-primary-energy