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Biofuels cut into oil demand

File. (UPI Photo/Patrick D. McDermott)
File. (UPI Photo/Patrick D. McDermott) | License Photo

LONDON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Energy efficiency and new technology are expected to lead to a sea change in the international oil use, a consultant said.

A report from industrial consultant company Ricardo Strategic Consulting concluded that oil demand in 2035 is expected to be 3 percent less than global 2010 levels of 87.4 million barrels of oil per day.

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Peter Hughes, managing director of energy at Ricardo, was quoted by London's Daily Telegraph newspaper as saying "the world is nearing a paradigm shift in oil demand."

Ricardo finds that new technologies in biofuels, energy products generated from agriculture, will drive the shift in oil consumption.

Hughes said that concerns over food and the use of biofuels are misconstrued because the sector is constrained more by a lack of investments than supply.

"If crop yields increase at historic rates, there will be enough surplus conventional fuel crops to displace a significant amount of fossil fuels," the report from Ricardo read.

The consultant group finds that oil demand should peak sometime before 2020.

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