Taiwan has very limited domestic energy resources and must rely on oil and coal imports to satisfy the majority of its energy demand. According to an energy research firm, oil and coal made up 41% and 34% of Taiwan’s total primary energy consumption in 2013, respectively, while the remainder was mostly natural gas, nuclear, and smaller amounts of various renewable energy sources.

Taiwan consumed close to 1 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of total petroleum and other liquids in 2013. Taiwan has four refineries with a total crude distillation capacity of 1.2 million bbl/d which run mostly on imported crude oil. Taiwan imports about 85% of its crude oil from countries in the Persian Gulf and smaller portions from Angola and other countries, according to Taiwan’s customs agency (U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), n.d.).

Moreover, Taiwan has small deposits of proved oil reserves of approximately 2.4 million barrels as of January 2014, according to the Oil & Gas Journal. Taiwan produced an average of 22,000 bbl/d of total oil in 2013, virtually all of which was refinery processing gains (U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), n.d.).

 

Geology in the News

Independence in the energy sector is unlikely given Taiwan’s scarce resources. As aforementioned, Taiwan’s dependence on imports of oil and coal makes the country’s economy vulnerable to fluctuating prices. The following article suggests an alternative to this dynamic, as “Taiwan shows rich potential for development of renewable energy.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/06/27/2003565778