The world is past the era of growing crude oil demand, BP said in its annual energy outlook report , which was released today. The message of the outlook, according to media reports, is that oil consumption may never recover to pre-pandemic levels, and not just because of the pandemic itself but because of factors that have been at play long before the coronavirus made the jump from bats to humans. “Demand for oil falls over the next 30 years,” the company said in the report. “The scale and pace of this decline is driven by the increasing efficiency and electrification of road transportation.” In the report, BP looks at three scenarios for the future of oil demand: Business-as-usual, Rapid, and Net Zero. None of them envisage growth in oil demand over the long term. The most optimistic one—from the oil industry’s perspective—is the business-as-usual scenario, which sees demand […]