Naimi Counters Peak Oil Theorists, Says World Reserves Doubled

(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al- Naimi said global crude oil reserves have doubled since 1980, countering analysts who predict a supply shortage.

Oil prices and other commodity markets are “becoming increasingly more interconnected with the financial markets where rapid developments in the latter have intensified oil price volatility,” he said in a speech today in Seoul.


Saudi Arabia plans to boost its oil production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009, Naimi said. The rush to develop biofuels has increased the cost of “the marginal barrel worldwide,” he said.