Oil ― The Magic Fuel

Sorry — No Substitutions

The fundamental challenge of our times is that we are unable to find a substitute for fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. Of these three, crude oil is the most important. Therefore, in order to better understand the difficulties that lie ahead, we need to understand the unique and irreplaceable features of oil and why it is so important.

Crude oil is energy dense, available, dispatchable, portable, safe, scalable and a source of petrochemicals. The core problem our society faces is that we cannot find another source of energy that has all these attributes, and that does not contribute to the climate crisis. We need oil if we are to maintain our current first-world lifestyle. Yet, if we use oil, we drastically change the climate.

Even if we could convert our energy base from fossil fuels to wind and solar, we would still need oil to build, operate and maintain all the machinery and equipment that we use. And even when it comes to energy, there are few plausible substitutes for diesel (needed for trucks and trains), bunker fuel (needed for the world’s shipping fleets), and aviation fuel (needed if the commercial airline industry is to survive).

Throughout this book we use the structure shown in Table 1.1. This Table contains just the fossil fuels ― the same structure will be used to evaluate other energy sources in subsequent chapters. The letters have the following meanings:

• Y – ‘Yes’. Meets this aspect very well.

• N ― ‘No’. Does not do well in this category.

• P ― ‘Partial’.