Frequently Asked Questions

How much oil is used to make plastic?

In 2006,¹ about 331 million barrels of liquid petroleum gases (LPG) and natural gas liquids (NGL) were used to make plastic products in the plastic materials and resins industry in the United States, equal to about 4.6% of total U.S. petroleum consumption. Of the total, 329 million barrels were used as feedstock and 2 million barrels were consumed as fuel.

LPG are by-products of petroleum refining, and NGL are removed from natural gas before it enters transmission pipelines.

In addition to petroleum, about 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas were used as feedstock and 324 billion cubic feet were burned as fuel, equal to about 1.5% of total U.S. natural gas consumption in 2006. Electricity is also used to manufacture plastic materials and resins: in 2006, about 19.2 billion kilowatt-hours, less than 1% of total U.S. electricity consumption. Only about 1.4% of the total U.S. petroleum consumed in 2006 was used to generate electricity.

EIA does not have similar data for other countries, and does not have data on the quantity of plastics materials and resins produced in the United States and in other countries or data on the origin of all the plastic products used in the United States.

¹Most recent year for which data is available.

Learn more:

Detailed data on manufacturing energy consumption.

Data on annual U.S. petroleum consumption.

Last reviewed: July 20, 2012