The growing share of oil in world trade is mostly theresult of higher prices rather than increased quantities.This is illustrated by Figure 8, which shows world production of fossil fuels including crude oil since 1970. Output of oil has been remarkably steady in recent years, but this has coincided with rising demand on the
part of major developing countries such as China and India, which has put upward pressure on prices.
Constant oil production also fails to keep up with
demand due to normal population growth. It should be
noted that the relationship between world oil trade and production is not one-to-one, but given the uneven
distribution of these resources across countries, it is reasonable to link the two. The share of world oil
production that is exported has in fact been remarkably steady over time, rising from 50 per cent in 1970 to
55 per cent in 2000, and remaining unchanged since then. Coal and natural gas production has continued to
expand in recent years, mostly to meet growing demand for electricity generation
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