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Energy use highest since 1973, BP says

A motorist pumps gas in Denver on April 15, 2011. Gas and food price increases will affect the nation's economic growth in the coming months. Gasoline jumped 5.6 percent last month and has risen nearly 28 percent in the past year. Consumers paid an average price of $3.81 a gallon nationwide on Friday according to the travel group AAA. UPI/Gary C. Caskey
A motorist pumps gas in Denver on April 15, 2011. Gas and food price increases will affect the nation's economic growth in the coming months. Gasoline jumped 5.6 percent last month and has risen nearly 28 percent in the past year. Consumers paid an average price of $3.81 a gallon nationwide on Friday according to the travel group AAA. UPI/Gary C. Caskey | License Photo

LONDON, June 13 (UPI) -- Global energy use in 2010 increased at the fastest pace in more than 30 years in part because of general economic recovery, British energy company BP said.

BP in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy for 2011 indicated that economic growth helped drive an energy consumption increase of 5.6 percent in 2010, the highest rate since 1973.

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"It increased strongly for all forms of energy and in all regions," said BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley.

Expanding energy consumption helped drive greenhouse gas emissions to their highest increase since 1969, the report said.

The report stated that the Middle East held 54.4 percent of the world deposits of oil, down from 56.6 percent in 2009. Saudi Arabia had the most oil with 264.5 billion barrels of oil reserves.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Economies last week left their regular meeting in Vienna without agreeing to increase oil production.

OPEC in its monthly report predicted higher demand and a tightening market that could increase crude oil prices.

Saudi Arabia said it would move unilaterally to put more crude oil on the market and last week Washington suggested it could tap into its strategic reserves.

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Economists had worried that higher energy prices could erase post-recession gains.

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