The United States annually consumes: 7.2 billion barrels of petroleum (35.9 quadrillion Btu), 27.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (28.4 quadrillion Btu) 729.5 million short tons of coal (14.2 quadrillion Btu) Yet, US consumption of these fossil fuels amounts to only 13.6% of total global energy consumption. In other words, the world consumes a staggeringly large amount of energy.