Global changes and new trends within the territorial structure of the oil, gas and coal industries

The development of power engineering in the last decades has corresponded to the rapidly growing demand for primary energy in the world. The economic, political and environmental problems which arise in connection to the exploitation and processing of primary energy resources has taken on a global dimension. The increased use of oil and natural gas has had a very important multiplication effect on the world economy. It has caused changes in the structure as well as the location of the power industry and in other industries, namely chemical and transportation. The important moments of the last decade which have influenced the total consumption of primary energy were namely the increasing energy demand in Eastern Europe, South-East Asia, India, China, and Latin America. In the developing regions the important drivers of the demand have been the development of industrial production and continuing population pressure. In Eastern Europe it is necessary to stress the connection between increasing living standards and the development of small and medium enterprises. A very strong regional differentiation is characteristic for the entire power engineering sector . The deposits of energy resources, namely of oil and natural gas, their extraction, consumption and processing are characterized by significant territorial imbalances. For example, the OPEC countries are assumed to dispose of approximately 80% of the world reserves of oil and they have a 40% share in the total world production, but their own consumption is substantially lower. A similar imbalance also exists in the case of natural gas. The basic development tendency in the territorial structure of the extraction and consumption of both oil and natural gas will be a constantly deepening asymmetry between the extraction, processing and consumption.