The oil industry underestimates the impact of changed consumer sentiment on its business: the fight against plastic waste will undermine the demand for oil more than was commonly believed, Interfax reported, citing the Financial Times.

Cafes and restaurants refuse from plastic straws, shops – from disposable bags, in many countries laws are being passed on restricting disposable packaging in various fields. Is it too early for these changes to affect oil and gas companies?

Now more than half of the global oil demand is provided by transportation. Petrochemicals account for only 15% of oil consumption, but the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects this share to reach 50% by 2040. Petrochemical enterprises will remain the main source of demand for oil, growth in which will accelerate and not slow down, as in other segments.

However, some experts believe it is an erroneous assumption that in the next two decades, the demand for plastics and their products will grow significantly faster than the global economy, as it has been in recent decades.

The forecasts of the IEA and other companies and organizations come from a consistently high consumption of plastics – with an average growth of 3% per year in 2017–2040. To this end, today’s emerging markets must retain existing consumption patterns. In addition, the expectations must be realized that the “invisible plastic” (components of the digital infrastructure, smartphones and other electronic devices) will become a new irreplaceable source of demand.

However, now 45% of all plastic produced in the world goes to packaging materials, while electronics only 7%. Reducing the use of plastic bags and a number of other types of plastic can slow down the growth of its total consumption by half in the next two decades, thereby weakening the prospects for demand for oil.

Earlier it was reported that the European Parliament Committee on the Environment voted to ban in the European Union from 2021 the use of disposable plastic products, which account for more than 70% of marine garbage.

Earlier it was reported that Moldova, starting in 2019, will begin to abandon plastic bags. Failure will take place in several stages. In Georgia, in order to reduce environmental pollution, since October 1, 2018, the production, import and sale of oxo-degradable plastic bags less than 15 microns thick is prohibited.

In New Zealand, disposable plastic bags will also be banned from July 2019.
In early August, banned the use of disposable plastic bags banned in Chile. Other countries that have banned the use of plastic bags are Zimbabwe, Australia, the United Kingdom and Kenya.