Fuelling Asia’s drivers as car ownership soars
Subsidies and weak policy mean Asia’s rising economies will dominate demand growth for transport fuels
The Asia-Pacific region will see the strongest growth in energy demand from transportation compared to any other part of the world over the next decades as its economies continue to boom and car-ownership numbers soar. From 1990 to 2010, energy demand from Asia-Pacific’s transport sector rose from 1.87 billion to 4.42bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), data from ExxonMobil show. And this number is forecast to double, with almost 60% of the expansion driven by light and heavy-duty vehicles, hitting 9bn boe by 2040. Gasoline and diesel will fuel most of these vehicles, a trend that is set to continue as oil at the pump remains relatively cheap in Asia. Huge government subsidies, costing billi
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