UNNATURALLY COOL67structural reductions based on investment in alternate fuels and more
efficient capital equipment— Toyotas, wall- cavity insulation, and nuclear
power. Oil had been pushed out of the electricity sector completely— with
the exception of the small island states, where there was no other option,
and the Middle East, where it was subsidized. But while demand for oil
slackened elsewhere, in the Gulf it grew profoundly. In 1973, oil con-
sumption in the Gulf was less than 500,000 b/d, or less than 1 percent of
the world total. Forty years later, the Gulf states, with just 0.5 percent of
the world’s population, consumed 6 percent of humanity’s oil, 6m b/d.
Growth in energy demand is normal in countries undergoing indus-
trialization. Japan, China, Germany, and South Korea all displayed fast
energy- demand growth rates during their boom years. But while the
energ y boom years in Japan, Germany, or China lasted a decade or maybe
two, the fast pace of demand in the Gulf has continued to build for nearly
a half- century (see table 5.1).
Put in context, the Gulf monarchies now get through more oil than
Japan, India, Russia— or the entire continent of Africa.^3 This huge growth
TABLE 5.1 Average yearly growth, 1971– 2015Primary energy demand Oil demand onlyUAE 9.5% per year 11.3% per year
Qatar 8.9% 11.1%
Oman 13.4% 10.6%
Saudi Arabia 10.1% 9.4%
Bahrain 7.2% 7.4%
China 4.0% 6.1%
South Korea 6.0% 5.8%
Kuwait 3.8% 5.2%
USA 0.5% 0.4%
Japan 0.9% 0.1%
Germany 0.0% −0.5%
Source: International Energy Agency, “World Energy Balances,” statistics database (Paris: IEA,
2018).