Impact of The Pandemic on Petroleum Energy Consumption

by Ester Gadelha and Carol Rios Rocha

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted people all across the globe. Most developed countries imposed social distancing and quarantines during the peak of the pandemic. This resulted in behavioral changes such as working from home, avoiding traveling, social distancing, and closure of businesses related to entertainment. Although the period between the end of 2019 and 2020 was marked by tragedy and a collective sense of hopelessness, there was at least one positive event during the period. For the first time in recent history, global energy consumption declined sharply. The most recently published edition of the bp Statistical Review of World Energy presents numerical data that shows a 5.3% decline in energy production in theUnited States. One of the most noticeable declines is related to the production and consumption of oil. Before the pandemic, petroleum and oil gas were the primary sources of energy in the United States. At the beginning of the pandemic, the price of the barrels of petroleum and oil decreased significantly as well as their consumption. Concurrently, renewable energy consumption had slightly increased. The statistical data seems to suggest that renewable energy production and consumption are finally becoming more relevant than non-renewable energy in the US. This could mean that environmental awareness is finally having a concrete impact on the production of energy and consumption habits. However, a more detailed analysis of the data reveals that the decline in non-renewable energy production and the increase in renewable energy production may not be correlated. Instead, the behavioral changes observed during the period of the pandemic were responsible for this shift.

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