World's Largest Fossil Energy Consumers

Coal, natural gas , petroleum still dominates the world energy consumption in 2012 . The third mix of fossil fuels has reached 87 % of world energy consumption in 2012 .

Gas mix up slightly from 23.8 % to 23.9 % . While coal consumption rose from 29.7 % to 29.9 % . Mix oil consumption dropped from 33.4 to 33.1 % . The International Energy Agency predicted in 2017 , coal will replace oil as an energy source in the world . This was revealed by Vital Signs Online report released by the Worldwatch Institute .

U.S. oil production reached a new record last year . The U.S. is expected to replace Russia as an oil producer and the world's largest natural gas this year ( 2013) . In effect, the U.S. imports of oil and gas will go down while the use of domestic natural gas continues to increase .

This condition triggers the natural gas price gap between the U.S. and the EU , forcing the European Union to use their coal energy . Even so , China remains the largest consumer of coal in the world . In 2012 , for the first time , China consumed more than half of global coal use .

China 's coal consumption rose 6.1 % and India up by 9.9 % in 2012 . Use of coal by OECD member countries ( Organisation for Economic Co - operation and Development ) fell 4.2 % . Balancing act occurs in the OECD ; U.S. coal consumption fell 11.9 % while consumption in the European Union rose 3.4 % and Japan 5.4 % . China , United States and India continue to be the major coal producer with a mix of 47.5 % , 13.4 % and 6 % of world coal production .

Global natural gas production also rose by 1.9 % in 2012 , dominated by the United States (up 20.4 % of the total ) and Russia ( 17.6 % ) . Other countries each contributed less than 5 % of global natural gas output .

In 2012 , coal remains the fossil fuel with the fastest growth , while consumption increased by 2.5 % last year , still lower than the trend growth in consumption over the last decade the average of 4 % .

World oil production rose 2.2 % or 100.1 million tons in 2012 . The U.S. also became the world's largest oil producer with production rising to 13.9 % , the highest among other countries such as Canada , China and the countries of the former Soviet Union which reached 6.8 % , 2 % , and 0.4 % . U.S. oil consumption and the European Union fell by 2.3 % and 4.6 % . While China and Japan's oil consumption rose 5 % and 6.3 % .

According to Vital Signs production and consumption of fossil fuels will continue to rise in the future . Natural gas production will continue to grow driven by efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal consumption . And oil will continue to be the world's primary energy source , unless , there is a fundamental change in the global transportation sector .