Your comment reminded me of the idea that "...crude oil is much too valuable to be burned as a fuel."

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7121.html

Sure, but something like 40% of all oil in America is used for transportation, and 55% of that is gasoline for cars.

Source: http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/fuels.aspx https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=us_energy_transpor...

I can't find a good source for what percentage of global oil consumption is burned up in cars, but supposing that was ~20% as well--that would be really something, to take away ~20% of Big Oil's revenues.