ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the 1985 Gas Research Institute (GRI) Baseline Projection of United States (US) Energy Supply and Demand, which has been adopted for the current planning cycle by the GRI. It is assumed that as a result of low oil prices, domestic production will decline and imports to the United States will rise. Global exploration and development will slow, and production will be reconcentrated in the Middle East. Petroleum consumption is projected to grow at only 0.5 percent per year or at less than half of the rate of growth in total energy demand. Most of the growth in petroleum consumption is projected to occur in the industrial sector. Total residential energy demand is projected to increase at only 0.2 percent per year between 1984 and 2010. During the balance of the 1980s and into the 1990s, the rate of economic growth in the commercial sector is still expected to be greater than that of the general economy.
