ECONOMIC REPORT 2013
67
c) Transport
Oil products continue to dominate fuels for
transport throughout the world (>90 per
cent share). Apart from the electrification
of railway lines with high traffic densities,
the inherent properties of oil products –
availability, portability and energy density –
make them uniquely suitable for land, sea and
air transport, especially over long distances.
As mentioned previously, however, gas is now
being tried on a modest scale in medium to
heavy commercial road transport in the USA
and in buses in various parts of the world.
While some of the new technologies being
developed demonstrate applicability for road
transport over shorter distances, such as for
cars, buses and vans in and around towns and
cities, none so far shows signs of replacing oil
products for longer distances on land, never
mind at sea or in the air. And thus far, neither
hybrid nor purely electric vehicles have
captured the public’s imagination.
Meanwhile, under a combination of more
stringent regulatory requirements, high prices
and competitive pressures, manufacturers
have already made considerable progress in
improving the fuel efficiency of petrol and
diesel vehicles during the past ten years and
there is the likely prospect of more advances
in technology improving efficiency yet further
during the coming years.
In the air, new technologies such as are
evident in Boeing’s 787, which entered
service in October 2011, and Airbus’s A350,
which flew for the first time in June 2013, are
creating step changes in fuel efficiency. Even
with long established airframes, such as the
popular 737 and A320 families of aircraft,
the relentless demands of competition are
delivering ever better performance and lower
fuel consumption.
It seems inevitable that oil’s products will
remain the dominant fuels for transport until
2030 and probably beyond.
Gas from Shale
As a result of the extraordinary developments
in the USA in the past few years, one of the
most openly debated subjects in Britain and
the EU has been shale gas and the hydraulic
fracturing (or ‘fracking’) of wells, a technique
which has existed in oil and gas exploration
and production for more than 60 years, long
before shale gas exploration started
20
.
A wide variety of reports has been published,
but a joint publication by the Royal Society
and the Royal Academy of Engineering in June
2012
21
was among the more keenly awaited
in this country. It had been commissioned by
the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser in
the aftermath of two small tremors following
hydraulic fracturing of a well by Cuadrilla
Resources in Lancashire during spring 2011.
DECC lifted the temporary moratorium on
shale gas drilling in mid-December 2012,
together with imposing some additional
controls on operators to mitigate the risks of
a recurrence.
In June 2013, DECC released the latest
assessment by the British Geological
Survey
22
of the potential shale gas resources
in the Bowland Shale across the north
midlands and northern England (most of
Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire,
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire plus parts
20
There are understood to be more than a million wells worldwide which have been hydraulically fractured; such wells already exist both onshore
and offshore the UK.
21
See
22
See
