Authors: Matthew R. Simmons
ISBN-13: 9780471738763, ISBN-10: 047173876X
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Date Published: June 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)
MATTHEW R. SIMMONS is Chairman of Simmons & Company International, a Houston-based investment bank that specializes in the energy industry. He now focuses on research, writing, and speaking engagements. Last year, he gave seventy-five speeches to a variety of groups, including energy industry conferences, university symposiums, and think tanks. Mr. Simmons is a member of the National Petroleum Council, a board member of Resources for the Future, and a Trustee of The Atlantic Council of the United States. He has an MBA from Harvard University.
Saudi Arabia is the most important
oil producing nation in history. The secretive Saudi government repeatedly assures the world that its oil fields are healthy beyond reproach, and that they can maintain and even increase output at will to meet skyrocketing global demand.
But what if they can't?
Twilight in the Desert looks behind the curtain to reveal a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible decline. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry analyst Matthew Simmons draws on his own three-plus decades of insider experience and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi petroleum resources and production operations. What he uncovers is a story about Saudi Arabia's troubled oil industry, not to mention its political and societal instability, which differs sharply from the globally accepted Saudi version.
It's a story that is provocative and disturbing, based on undeniable facts, but until now never told in its entirety. Twilight in the Desert examines numerous aspects of Saudi Arabia and its looming oil crisis, including:
While Saudi officials promise to increase production from current levels if necessary, Twilight in the Desert examines the history of other major oil fields to determine that Saudi Arabia is in fact overproducing its primary resources, and couldn't possibly ramp up production for long. It calls for long-overdue transparency on the part of the Saudis and all significant global oil producers, along with urgently needed energy data reform, and a global energy blueprint for how the world will cope once Saudi oil output has peaked.
Without question, Saudi Arabian oil fields provide the rest of the world with its most plentiful, low-cost oil resource. The question is how long can they continue to keep these critical pipelines open. Twilight in the Desert answers that question with keen examination instead of unsubstantiated posturing, and takes its place as one of the most important books of this still-young century.
1 | The birth of a nation | 5 |
2 | The history of major Saudi Arabian oil discoveries | 23 |
3 | Saudi Arabia's road to oil market dominance | 43 |
4 | The veil of secrecy over Saudi oil reserves and production | 69 |
5 | Saudi Aramco | 101 |
6 | Oil is not just another commodity | 129 |
7 | Ghawar, the king of oilfields | 151 |
8 | The second-tier oilfields | 181 |
9 | The best of the rest | 199 |
10 | Coming up empty in new exploration | 231 |
11 | Turning to natural gas | 245 |
12 | Saudi oil reserves claims in doubt | 265 |
13 | Facing the inevitable | 281 |
14 | Reading between the lines of the latest news from Aramco | 309 |
15 | Aramco invokes "fuzzy logic" to manage the future of Saudi oil | 325 |
16 | In search of crisper truths among the confident Saudi claims | 333 |
17 | Aftermath | 341 |