Oil’s share of world energy demand forecast to decline over next 25 years

Oil’s share of world energy demand will decline over the next quarter century, the Energy Department said Tuesday, as high prices spur greater use of alternatives such as coal, natural gas and renewable fuels.

“High prices do matter,” said Guy Caruso, administrator of the Energy Information Administration, a division of the Energy Department that released its annual international energy outlook.

The EIA predicted in December that worldwide oil prices would average $57 a barrel in 2030, a 35 percent increase from the long-term forecast the agency had made just a year earlier. As a result, the agency now expects oil’s share of total world energy consumption to drop to 33 percent by 2030, down from 38 percent in 2003.

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