Factories Using More Oil
Page 47
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WITHIN the next eight years road transport will cease to be the main user of oil in Britain. A change in the main weight of the country's oil consumption is taking place, and by 1965 factories will be the biggest outlet.
The Executives' Association of Great Britain heard this, last week, when Mr. A. C. Dude, general manager (administration) of Shell-Mex and B.P., Ltd., discussed the oil situation.
Transport consumed half of the oil used in Britain last year, he said, whilst • industry took 30 per cent. However, the trend since the war. had been for factories to substitute oil for coal—between 1952 and 1956 their demand doubled-and this change-over was continuing rapidly.
Under British Railways' modernization plans, lm. tons of oil a year would eventually be needed to power the new Diesel locomotives, saving 6m. tons of coal. New oil-fired power stations would also become major customers, and industries using high-temperature processes were certain to keep increas. ing their demands.
Dealing with the world's oil supply, Mr. Dune pointed out that proven oil reserves were increasing faster than the oil could be brought up. Last year, 760m. tons of oil were taken out of the ground outside the Iron Curtain, but during the same period proven reserves in the Free World increased by four times the rate of extraction.
Undetermined amounts of oil were known to exist outside these proven reserves, whilst there were certainly large.amounts awaiting discovery. The latest estimate of the world's recoverable reserves, he said, was well over 140,000m. tons, and it was significant that every time these reserves were estimated the figure was higher than before. There was plenty of oil to meet future demands.