The major consumer of oil is transport. But consider what has happened over the last 30 years or so to the technology involved in producing the internal combustion engine. Because oil is expensive, car engines today are far more efficient in their consumption of fuel (and far less polluting) than they were in 1972. The cars that Asia buys tomorrow will certainly not be anything like those Americans use today. Americans will not buy today's cars tomorrow either. In fact, if the price of oil does rise much further then fuel cell technology (which produces energy from water!) will receive yet another momentum. The big car multinationals have already produced the prototype motors ― they are currently racing to try and get prices down and engine performances up. Their future profits depend upon it. Imagine now if there is a breakthrough in fuel cell technology. What would happen to oil prices? They would fall dramatically ― signalling much less demand than supply ― and oil companies and OPEC oil producers would stand to lose much income. The fact that this threat is real is driving the producers to look for alternative sources of income. The 'oil majors' have diversified and are now more energy companies than oil companies these days and the OPEC countries are urgently attempting to develop other industries.