New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
How does the global energy system work?
20/10/2026
8 min read
Feature
At first glance, the tables and charts covering every major fuel, region and country in the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy can seem overwhelming. But a new free guide from the publisher introduces how energy is generated, consumed, stored and traded, as well as helping energy novices find and interpret information in its tables, write guide authors Kinga Niemczyk, Energy Institute Insight Analyst, and Gemma Fox, former Senior Energy Product Lead.
Every year, the Statistical Review of World Energy follows energy through each stage of the energy system. It records the production of primary energy, secondary and final energy, international trade, electricity generation, energy supply and consumption, and the emissions associated with energy use. Looking at these stages together helps explain how energy moves from natural resources to the services we rely on every day, while also allowing users to compare countries, technologies and long-term trends using worldwide data that is compiled using expert analysis and tried and trusted techniques by the Energy Institute.
Nations are distinct entities in a political and economic sense, so they are the fundamental reporting unit of energy measurements in the Statistical Review. Most nations manage their own energy system in their own way. In addition, many oil producing countries have national oil companies (NOCs). However, many energy producers and developers are international, including international oil companies (IOCs) such as BP, Shell and TotalEnergies, and renewables developers such as Ørsted and Masdar, as well as exploration and mining companies such as Anglo American or Rio Tinto.
Just because a commodity is produced in a certain country does not mean the country owns or controls that supply chain. Note also that some nations’ production may be affected by other international factors, such as members of the international trading bloc OPEC.