Transport operators can expect to be soon paying $200 for a barrel of oil and, as a result, will have to look at using new technology, such as carbon composites, to improve fuel efficiency of their vehicles.

That was the message of Virgin Group strategist Will Whitehorn to the assembled operators and local authority representatives at CPT Scotland's annual conference at Gleneagles.

"We are fundamentally now in a world where oil won't get any cheaper," said Whitehorn who is also president of space tourism venture Virgin Galactic. "We are at peak production, with no new oil fields having been discovered in the last 20 years. The long term solution is the more productive use of oil and the search for new technologies."

He said he expected that by 2016 exceptionally fuel efficient buses, with fuel consumption levels of around 200 miles per gallon, would be available that make extensive use of new light weight materials. These include carbon fibre composites that Boeing is using in its new and highly fuel efficient 787 airliner.

He was scathing of the use of biofuels, noting that to produce fuels such as ethanol required considerable amounts of energy. He said more research was needed into alternatives, such as biodiesel produced from alagae, which Whitehorn predicts will be in mainstream use by 2020 or 2030.