Shake up the Sheiks
Page 53
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The warning about fuel supplies and prices given at the Road Haulage Association's conference at Eastbourne (CM, October 27) by Sir Nevi! Macready, managing director of Mobil Oil Ltd, has since been reinforced by the European Economic Community. Pressure on supplies and increases in real prices may be expected towards the end of the 80s, says the Commission.
It reiterates the importance of reducing the Community's dependence on ex
ternal supplies — meaning substantially oil from the Middle East —and of building up internal reliable sources of energy. Coal is not being used efficiently in the EEC and despite a cut in the annual production target from 250m tonnes in 1974 to 220m tonnes, the stockpile amounts to 60m tonnes, which the Commission says is "almost unmanageable." An ignoramus like me would expect prices to be reduced accordingly but this has not seemed to happen. Sir Nevil said the most promising future alternative to conventional fuels was petrol derived from coal. A Mobil pilot plant in the USA is converting coal-based methanol into high-octane petrol and is producing 140 gallons a day but it is not an economic proposition.
What I cannot understand is why Britain could produce petrol from coal in the 30s — was it called Coalene? — but does not seem to be able to do so now, despite the advance of technology.