OIL and natural gas are an important part of your everyday life.
Not only do they give us mobility, they heat and cool our homes
and provide electricity. Millions of products are made from oil
and gas, including plastics, life-saving medications, clothing,
cosmetics, and many other items you may use daily.
In the United States, 97 percent of the energy that drives the
transportation sector that includes cars, buses, subways, railroads
and airplanes comes from fuels made from oil.
Auto manufacturers are developing cars to run on alternate fuels
such as electricity, hydrogen and ethanol. However, the electric
batteries need to be charged and the fuel to generate the electricity
could be oil or gas.
The hydrogen needed for fuel cells may be generated from natural
gas or petroleum-based products. Even as alternative fuels are
developed, oil will be crucially important to assuring that people
can get where they need to be and want to go for the foreseeable
future. Barring any increase in the penetration of new technologies,
alternative fuels are not expected to become competitive with
oil for transportation before 2025.
In areas of the world that are still developing, businesses
and individuals are demanding greater mobility for themselves
and their products. World vehicle ownership is projected to increase
from 122 vehicles per thousand people in 1999 to 144 vehicles
per thousand in 2020, with the growth occurring in developing
nations.
In China, for example, the number of cars has been growing by
20pc a year. Airports are being added in these countries as well,
expanding jet fuel demand. Oil is expected to remain the primary
fuel source for transportation throughout the world for the foreseeable
future, and transportation fuels are projected to account for
almost 57pc of total world oil consumption by 2020.
The world’s population is currently around six billion people
but is expected to grow to approximately 7.6 billion by 2020.
That will mean a huge increase in the demand for transportation
fuels, electricity, and many other consumer products made from
oil and natural gas.
Natural gas use is growing across all economic sectors. Natural
gas burns cleaner than oil or coal, and this environmental benefit
has encouraged its use. While decades ago, natural gas was seen
as an unwanted by-product of oil and may have been wasted, its
value has been recognised.
– Society of Petroleum Engineers International
