Korea¡¯s oil appetite 2nd in world

Korea¡¯s petroleum consumption last year recorded the world¡¯s second highest growth rate, behind only India.

And the trend is carrying into this year, registering a year-on-year gain of 5.9% during this year¡¯s first five months. In addition, not only consumption of petroleum, but that of other energy resources was indicated to draw an excessively steep upward curve, as consumption of liquefied natural gas during the period jumped 21.3% from a year earlier, nuclear energy consumption increased 12.1%, and coal consumption rose 9.7%.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and Korea National Oil Corp., the nation last year consumed 2,165,000 barrels of petroleum per day, on average. This figure was up 7.71% or 155,000 barrels from 2,010,000 barrels per day registered in 1998.

Meanwhile, BP Amoco Chemicals, a global oil major, released a report that India topped the list of countries with the highest daily average petroleum consumption growth rate in 1999, followed by Korea, China, the United States, Russia, Japan, France and Brazil. Among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Korea came in the distant top spot.

Also, Korea, which ranked seventh out of the world¡¯s heavy oil-consuming countries in 1998, was lifted to the sixth place last year, following the United States, Japan, China, Germany and Russia.

¡°Especially sharply surging energy prices will fall heavily on Korea, a non-oil producing country,¡± the BP Amoco report noted.