Peak oil must serve as an "alarm that we need to take more seriously" by diversifying Saudi Arabia's economy, Mohammed al-Sabban said.

Meet the DoomersIt was early 2007, and I was riding high at The Oil Drum. I had written a number of articles on energy policy, and a consistent theme of mine was that biofuels weren't going to replace our current level of fossil fuel usage.  For the most ...

I have been thinking a lot lately about the impact of $100+ oil prices on the world economy. Like many others, I am trying to work out the probable implications - for the overall economy, for the U.S. economy, for the energy sector, for my personal finances, and for the ...

Just going through some files on my hard drive, and I ran across the following story. Unfortunately, I don't have the source. But it's an interesting look at where projected future oil reserves are expected to come from. It also reinforces the difficulty that the international oil companies are going ...

It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly people can develop amnesia. Take the case with oil production in Saudi Arabia. A year ago, their production was declining. A number of people argued that this was because they were experiencing an irreversible, involuntary, geological decline. My position was always ...

BackgroundIn December of 2006, there was a lively discussion at The Oil Drum about what would happen with oil prices in 2007. Although almost everyone felt that oil prices would rise, some argued that oil prices would rise to $100 by the end of 2007. A major ...

It has been clear for some time that OPEC members are deeply split over whether $100 oil is good for them in the long-term. Saudi Arabia, having been in this game a long time, probably understands better than most the effect that high oil prices will have. While short-term gains ...

Too often people try to interpret comments or actions from Saudi Arabia, without attempting to understand the issues from their perspective. I think it is a useful exercise to ask whether their specific actions or comments make sense; 1). From the Saudi perspective, and 2). In the context of the ...

Raymond J. Learsy, author of Over a Barrel,is an idiot. How he managed to write a book will always be a mystery to me. Every time I read ...

A friend recently pointed me to a 2003 paper that attempts to explain the reasoning behind Saudi Arabia's behavior with respect to their oil fields. This sort of managed production has always been my counter-argument to those who believe Saudi has peaked and production there is coming down involuntarily. This ...