50
39
th
Annual Report
With regard to the European industrial countries, the largest four
countries (German, France, Italy, andUnitedKingdom) showed aweak
consumption of oil in the last few years. The sovereign debt crisis in
the Euro area, which started at the end of 2009 and worsened in early
2011, had a great impact on the economies of industrialized Europe,
as it led to reducing economic growth to 1.3% during the year and
decline in oil demand growth by 500,000 b/d in 2012, representing a
loss of up to 20% in demand since 1998.
The most affected sectors in
the above mentioned group was the transport and industrial sectors,
due to the decline in the consumption of gasoline and distillates.
As for Japan, the catastrophic explosion of the Fukushima nuclear
complex continued its great impact on oil demand and on the overall
aspects of the Japanese economy. Japan had an almost complete
closure of its nuclear plants during the year, forcing the country to
increase the use of other types of energy. Oil consumption in the
electric power plants rose to account for 19.7% of total energy
consumption in Japan during the year, compared with 7.5% in the
previous year. As a result, the demand for oil (especially in the form
of fuel oil and crude oil) increased by 300 thousand b / d in Japan
accounting for about 40% of the total global annual growth of oil
demand during the year.
The analysis of OCEDoil demand on a quarterly basis in 2012, OPEC
estimates indicate a decline by 0.1 million b/d in the group demand
during the first quarter of 2012 compared with the fourth quarter of the
previous year. Demand of the group in the second quarter declined by
700,000 b/d compared with the first quarter of previous year, followed
by an increase of 400,000 b/d in third quarter compared with the second
quarter and a further increase in the fourth quarter by about 500,000
b/d compared with the third quarter of the year.
