Major coal importers

Countries with annual gross import higher than 20 million tonnes are shown. In terms of net import the largest importers are still Japan (206.0 millions tonnes), China (172.4) and South Korea(125.8).

Imports of Coal by Country and year (million short tons)
Country	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Share
Japan	199.7	209.0	206.0	182.1	206.7	17.5%
China	42.0	56.2	44.5	151.9	195.1	16.6%
South Korea	84.1	94.1	107.1	109.9	125.8	10.7%
India	52.7	29.6	70.9	76.7	101.6	8.6%
Taiwan	69.1	72.5	70.9	64.6	71.1	6.0%
Germany	50.6	56.2	55.7	45.9	55.1	4.7%
Turkey	22.9	25.8	21.7	22.7	30.0	2.5%
United Kingdom	56.8	48.9	49.2	42.2	29.3	2.5%
Italy	27.9	28.0	27.9	20.9	23.7	1.9%
Netherlands	25.7	29.3	23.5	22.1	22.8	1.9%
Russia	28.8	26.3	34.6	26.8	21.8	1.9%
France	24.1	22.1	24.9	18.3	20.8	1.8%
United States	40.3	38.8	37.8	23.1	20.6	1.8%
Total	991.8	1,056.5	1,063.2	1,039.8	1,178.1	100%

Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content. It is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.

Coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. The carbon monoxide produce by its combustion reduces iron oxide (hematite) in the production of the ironproduct.

Since smoke-producing constituents are driven off during the coking of coal, coke forms a desirable fuel for stoves and furnaces in which conditions are not suitable for the complete burning ofbituminous coal itself. Coke may be combusted producing little or no smoke, while bituminous coal would produce much smoke.

Discovered by accident to have superior heat shielding properties when combined with other materials, coke was one of the materials used in the heat shielding on NASA's Apollo program space vehicles. In its final form, this material was called AVCOAT 5026-39. This material has been used most recently as the heat shielding on the Mars Pathfinder vehicle. Although not used for modern day space shuttles, NASA had been planning to utilize coke and other materials for the heat shield for its next generation space craft, named Orion, before that project's cancellation.

Coke was widely used as a substitute for coal in domestic heating following the creation of smokeless zones in the United Kingdom.

Highland Park distillery in Orkney roasted malt barley for use in their Scotch whisky in kilns burning a mixture of coke and peat.

A briquette (or briquet) is a block of flammable matter used as fuel to start and maintain a fire. Common types of briquettes are charcoal briquettes and biomass briquettes.

An oil is any neutral, nonpolar chemical substance, that is a viscous liquid at ambient temperatures, and is immiscible with water but soluble in alcohols or ethers. Oils have a high carbon and hydrogen content and are usually flammable and slippery. Oils may be animal, vegetable, or petrochemical in origin, and may be volatile or non-volatile.

Petroleum (L. petroleum, from Greek: πέτρα (rock) + Latin: oleum (oil)) is a naturally occurring flammable liquidconsisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. The name Petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oils and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, it is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and undergo intense heat and pressure.

Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling. This comes after the studies of structural geology (at the reservoir scale), sedimentary basin analysis, reservoir characterization (mainly in terms of porosity and permeable structures). It is refined and separated, most easily by boiling point, into a large number of consumer products, from petrol (orgasoline) and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to make plastics and pharmaceuticals. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of materials, and it is estimated that the world consumes about 88 million barrelseach day.

The use of fossil fuels such as petroleum can have a negative impact on Earth's biosphere, releasing pollutants and greenhouse gases into the air and damaging ecosystems through events such as oil spills. Concern over the depletion of the earth's finite reserves of oil, and the effect this would have on a society dependent on it, is a field known as peak oil.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimate for 2011, the world consumes 87.421 million barrels of oil each day.

Oil consumption per capita (darker colors represent more consumption).

This table orders the amount of petroleum consumed in 2011 in thousand barrels (1000 bbl) per day and in thousand cubic metres (1000 m³) per day:

Consuming Nation 2011	(1000 bbl/ day)	(1000 m3/ day)	population in millions	bbl/year per capita	m3/year per capita	national production/ consumption
United States 1	18,835.5	2,994.6	314	21.8	3.47	0.51
China	9,790.0	1,556.5	1345	2.7	0.43	0.41
Japan 2	4,464.1	709.7	127	12.8	2.04	0.03
India 2	3,292.2	523.4	1198	1	0.16	0.26
Russia 1	3,145.1	500.0	140	8.1	1.29	3.35
Saudi Arabia (OPEC)	2,817.5	447.9	27	40	6.4	3.64
Brazil	2,594.2	412.4	193	4.9	0.78	0.99
Germany 2	2,400.1	381.6	82	10.7	1.70	0.06
Canada	2,259.1	359.2	33	24.6	3.91	1.54
South Korea 2	2,230.2	354.6	48	16.8	2.67	0.02
Mexico 1	2,132.7	339.1	109	7.1	1.13	1.39
France 2	1,791.5	284.8	62	10.5	1.67	0.03
Iran (OPEC)	1,694.4	269.4	74	8.3	1.32	2.54
United Kingdom 1	1,607.9	255.6	61	9.5	1.51	0.93
Italy 2	1,453.6	231.1	60	8.9	1.41	0.10

Source: US Energy Information Administration