Roughly 60% of the world's ~100 million daily barrels moves things — cars, trucks, ships, planes. Most of the rest becomes the materials of modern life: plastics, fabrics, fertilizer, asphalt. Here's the breakdown, and why "peak gasoline" isn't "peak oil."
| Sector | ≈% | Share | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road transport (gasoline & diesel) | 45% | Cars, trucks, buses — the biggest single use, and the one EVs are eroding | |
| Petrochemicals & feedstock | 14% | Plastics, synthetic fibers, fertilizer precursors — fastest-growing segment | |
| Aviation & shipping | 12% | Jet kerosene and marine bunker fuel — hardest to electrify | |
| Industry & heating | 12% | Process heat, mining, agriculture, buildings | |
| Other (asphalt, lubes, power) | 17% | Roads, lubricants, LPG for cooking, residual power generation |
Approximate shares synthesized from IEA/OPEC outlooks — the exact split varies by source and year. Related: what one barrel refines into · world oil demand · the peak oil debate.
Transport, overwhelmingly: gasoline, diesel and jet fuel account for roughly 60% of world oil demand. The rest splits between petrochemical feedstock (plastics, fertilizers, synthetic materials — the fastest-growing use), industrial and heating fuel, asphalt and lubricants. Only a small share still generates electricity.
Far more than fuel: virtually all plastics, synthetic fabrics (polyester, nylon), tires, asphalt roads, detergents, paints, cosmetics, candles, fertilizers and pesticides (via natural gas and naphtha), and pharmaceutical ingredients — aspirin's precursors historically came from petrochemicals. A typical car contains hundreds of pounds of petroleum-derived plastics before the tank is ever filled.
That is the industry's central bet. Petrochemical feedstock is the fastest-growing demand segment in every major outlook, driven by emerging-market consumption of plastics and packaging — which is why forecasters who see transport fuel peaking still project total oil demand plateauing rather than collapsing.
A typical US refinery turns a 42-gallon barrel into roughly 19–20 gallons of gasoline, 12 of diesel/heating oil, 4 of jet fuel and about 10 of everything else (LPG, asphalt, petrochemical feedstock, lubricants). The full yield table is on the barrel-of-oil page.