Coal is the second only to oil in fossil fuel consumption and is very likely to have a greater use in the future as oil and gas production decline. The International Energy Outlook 2005 projects that coal consumption, which increased in production by 7.2% from 2003 to 2004, will increase by 2.5% per annum until 2015 and 1.3 % per annum from 2015 to 2025. The greater growth in the first period reflects the rapid growth of Asian economies during this time which are likely to slow down in the later period.