Photo Gallery Oiling the Wheels of the Future
Drivers may hate rising gas prices, but some companies are delighted as they watch the oil price soar. Firms like BMW and Airbus which are leaders in fuel efficiency actually benefit from expensive oil. Here, an oil platform is pictured in China's Bohai Sea.
Last year, Airbus received well over 1,000 orders for its A320neo model, with scheduled delivery starting in 2015. The plane uses about 15 percent less fuel, making it significantly more fuel-efficient than competitor Boeing's comparable models.
Large quantities of the oil used in Europe is processed at the port in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Earth's supply of oil is approaching its limits.
The development of new fields is becoming more and more complicated, costly and dangerous as the accident at the Elgin natural gas platform (pictured here) in the North Sea demonstrated last week.
The world is addicted to oil. Demand for energy is growing in countries such as China, as more and more people drive cars. Here, a view of traffic in Shanghai. China already consumes 9 million barrels of oil a day, or almost twice as much as it did 10 years ago.
A huge new generation of energy users is emerging in China and in India, where, in cities like New Dehli (pictured here), they are emulating the Western model of consumption, complete with air-conditioned homes and a car in the garage. The two countries, both with populations of more than a billion people, have a lot of catching up to do.
But some countries are slowly looking towards an oil-free future, including Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where two-thirds of oil revenues are saved. Abu Dhabi is investing $22 billion in dirty petro-dollars into a clean, zero-emissions city called Masdar, designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster. People are transported around the city in magnetically controlled electric vehicles known as "pad cars".
And in Germany, Daimler is one of many companies seeking to build more fuel-efficient products. The Actros truck, currently being introduced, will use 5 percent less fuel than its precursor model.
Graphic: An insatiable thirst for energy
Graphic: Global oil reserves
