New study raises doubts about Saudi oil reserves
Date: Thursday, April 01, 2004 @ 22:36:03 UTC
Topic: General
IAGS - Mar 31, 2004: "...In a new study soon to be released, Matthew R. Simmons, president of Simmons and Company International, a specialized energy investment banking firm [...] argues that Saudi Arabia's oil fields now are in decline, that the country will not be able to satisfy the world's thirst for oil in coming years and that its capacity will not climb much higher than its current capacity of 10mbd. Considering the growth in demand, this could easily spark a global energy crisis..."
..."The entire world assumes Saudi Arabia can carry everyone's energy needs on its back cheaply. If this turns out not to work there is no 'plan B.' Global spare capacity is now 'all Saudi Arabia.' This is the world's insurance policy and no third party inspector has examined it for years. Conventional wisdom says 'don't worry. trust today,' but if conventional wisdom is wrong, the world faces a giant energy crisis." Calling for large-scale research into new energy sources, he said: "If all these worries are wrong, it is like our preoccupation with nuclear war or future global warming. But even if part of it becomes true and not expected, the results are awful." Coming from someone who has advised the secretary of energy and the 2000 Bush campaign, this is a warning worth heeding.
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Read the article on the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) site: www.iags.org
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