ENERGY

OPEC’s Subroto Sees Coal Use Overtaking Oil: Crude oil’s share of the global energy mix is declining steadily, and coal will probably overtake it as the world’s top energy source by 2020, the secretary general of the cartel told an energy conference in Dallas. “This is a bitter pill for us in OPEC to swallow, as a grouping of 12 Third World oil-producing nations, most of which have single-product economies . . . ,” he said Thursday. Subroto said oil accounted for 41% of the world’s fuels in 1992 and is expected to fall to 39% by 2000 and 36% by 2010, while coal demand keeps rising. By 2020, coal is expected to grow to about 34% of the world energy market while oil shrinks to about 33%, he said.