WikiLeaks: Saudis running out of oil

[Frank Lee]

By Brett Michael Dykes
The latest startling revelation to come via documents leaked to Julian Assange's muckraking website and published by The Guardian is should give pause to every suburban SUV-driver: U.S. officials think Saudi Arabia is overpromising on its capacity to supply oil to a fuel-thirsty world. That sets up a scenario, the documents show, whereby the Saudis could dramatically underdeliver on output by as soon as next year, sending fuel prices soaring.

The cables detail a meeting between a U.S. diplomat and Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration for Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, in November 2007. Husseini told the American official that the Saudis are unlikely to keep to their target oil output of 12.5 million barrels per day output in order to keep prices stable. Husseini also indicated that Saudi producers are likely to hit "peak oil"--the point at which global output hit its high mark--as early as 2012. That means, in essence, that it will be all downhill from there for the enormous Saudi oil industry.

"According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray," one of the cables reads. "While al-Husseini fundamentally contradicts the Aramco company line, he is no doomsday theorist. His pedigree, experience and outlook demand that his predictions be thoughtfully considered."

WikiLeaks: Saudis running out of oil - Yahoo! News

[gone-ot]

...the SKY may be falling!


...but OIL prices aren't!

[NachtRitter]

Dunno if I'm being weird, but this seems like great news to me...

[UFO]

I understand the Saudis have been overstating their reserves for a while now. Now they won't be able to hide it anymore, if they can't meet production at current prices.

[euromodder]

Availability is also a price issue.
Oilfields that are not economical to explore at the current price levels, will become attractive at higher prices.

If you have something that is in high demand, you'd be foolish to produce more and sell it today at lower prices than what you could make of it next year.
Keeping a steady output while demand rises, will drive up the price by itself.

[NeilBlanchard]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Dunno if I'm being weird, but this seems like great news to me...

I agree -- I think we humans will not change (enough) without being forced to. The sooner the price of gasoline goes up in the US, the better?

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

I agree -- I think we humans will not change (enough) without being forced to. The sooner the price of gasoline goes up in the US, the better?

...nothing better than an self-inflicted, impromptu, "amputation" to cure one's hang-nail problem, uh?

[jakobnev]

Wow..

wikileaks needs to be hacked, virused and shut down

and..

WikiLeaks should be considered illegal and treasonous. No reputable entity should have any association with, or comment or report on, anything WikiLeaks divulges. Releasing classified, confidentail and potentially damaging information (no matter how "entertaining" some my find it) should be dealt with in the harshest manner.

WTH?!?!

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Availability is also a price issue.
Oilfields that are not economical to explore at the current price levels, will become attractive at higher prices.

If you have something that is in high demand, you'd be foolish to produce more and sell it today at lower prices than what you could make of it next year.
Keeping a steady output while demand rises, will drive up the price by itself.

And how often does production get lowered just to make more money?

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

And how often does production get lowered just to make more money?

...as often as you can say "monopoly" and not be referring to the board game