Oil Dependence: Is Transport Running out of Affordable Fuel?

The transport sector’s demand for oil is less price sensitive than any other part of the economy. This is partly because demand for transport services is relatively insensitive to price and partly because substitutes for oil in road transport are currently far from cost-effective. Evidence from the USA suggests that as incomes rise, transport sector oil demand becomes even less price sensitive. This implies that oil consumption is set to become increasingly concentrated in the transport sector. It also implies that relatively limited fluctuations in demand can have increasingly significant effects on oil prices.