The Prospects for Gas in the European Transportation Sector

Abstract

Natural gas has been used as transport fuel in vehicles for many years though primarily in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG). Natural gas has a number of environmental and financial advantages over oil-based fuels in most markets though, with some minor exceptions, it has always struggled to gain significant market share in Europe against the more efficient and established fuels. Interest in the sector has been revived recently by the emergence of LNG as a fuel which has some additional cost and technical advantages over CNG, in particular, as a fuel for heavy road vehicles and ships. This chapter looks at the financial and environmental case for natural gas as a transport fuel. It considers these advantages in the main transport sectors of passenger cars, road haulage vehicles and marine shipping and the resulting levels of demand that might emerge. The analysis primarily focusses on the situation in EU countries though other nations are mentioned where relevant—for example, Norway is an important player in the marine shipping sector.