[dolanbaker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '[')b]Saudi Arabia: Oil Reserves and Peak Oil

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')l Husseini forecasts The Peak Oil high point “a plateau in total output that will last approximately fifteen years,” meaning that soon after 2020 “a slow but steady output decline will ensue and no amount of effort will be able to stop it.”.

[Keith_McClary]

Said he was misquoted
Ex-Aramco Official: US Cable Wrong to Dispute Saudi Reserves
by Angus McDowall|Dow Jones Newswires|Wednesday, February 09, 2011

[Graeme]

Yes, the text looks similar except that in the Rigzone article there is no mention of the timing of peak oil - 2020 or thereabouts.

[kiwichick]

2020

is that 8 years and 9 months away?

[Graeme]

We will ramp up renewable energy to cover the shortfall - see my latest post in the Future Energy Technology thread. Don't worry about a thing!

[DomusAlbion]

I feel pretty confident that the Saudi's are, ahem, to put it nicely, prevaricating!

Aramco is owned and run by the royal family and its production figures are produced to show what those in power want the world to think. There are no independent, outside auditors and the wells cannot produce new oil that exactly matches the amount sold over the last year.

It's all made up. One day we'll wake up when the House of Saud can no longer hide the truth. And then it will be "Oops, sorry world."

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '(')Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's oil minister said on Sunday the market was oversupplied and the kingdom had reduced output, sending a the strongest signal yet that OPEC may not boost output in June to quell soaring oil prices.

Consumers have urged the exporters' group to add supply to halt the rally in oil prices that has taken crude to its highest level in 2 1/2 years amid unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, but OPEC members say there is little they can do to bring prices down.

"The market is overbalanced ... Our production in February was 9.125 million barrels per day (bpd), in March it was 8.292 million bpd. In April we don't know yet, probably a little higher than March. The reason I gave you these numbers is to show you that the market is oversupplied," Naimi told reporters.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/04/17/idINIndia-56391220110417

[eXpat]

And Saudi Arabia didn´t make it up for the Libyan oil either...
Saudi Arabia did not make up for Libyan oil
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')So my take is that the failure to increase production to compensate for Libya is deliberate. We can only speculate, but my guess is that, having watched how the west has helped to ease Mubarak and Ben-Ali out of power and is intervening in Libya to the same end, the Saudi regime is in no mood to care about our desire for more oil. Instead, they are very much in the mood to build as large a war chest as possible with which to appease their own population, strengthen their defense measures, etc.

[Carlhole]

You can start worrying when tanker start queuing.

[Plantagenet]

Saudi Arabia is cutting production??

Hmmmm....I think I'll hold on to my oil positions in the market a little bit longer.

[kiwichick]

oversupplied?????????????????????????

so why is the oil price so high??

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'o')versupplied?????????????????????????

so why is the oil price so high??

[eXpat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kiwichick', 'o')versupplied?????????????????????????

so why is the oil price so high??

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rockdoc123', 'I')f you pay attention to the weekly EIA statement on supplies the US is at the uppermost end of the average for this time of year and storage is full. You would not expect that if we were in a "we need oil" situation.

[cipi604]

The obvious becomes reality.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kiwichick', 'o')versupplied?????????????????????????

so why is the oil price so high??

[AirlinePilot]

Full supplies at Cushing no longer matter to GLOBAL markets as they used to. There is a reason why we now see the spread between Brent and WTI. Screaming and thumping the table about full inventory at Cushing is nothing more than a misunderstanding of the nature of the current oil trading environment.

[sparky]

.
All the above comments are valid , but expat has his finger on one of the reasons
the Kingdom was rattled by Obama call on Egypt and Tunisia
Libya is the reverse , they hate Kaddafi with passion and would have been delighted to see him hanging from a balcony
Closing their eyes on Israel is one thing but there is a clear understanding that
the Saudis familly is protected , they though it was all rather limp
in the middle East one has to pay one's debts
it was looking like the U.S. welshed on the deal in Bahrain
so they send their tanks across giving the finger to Prez Obama and his "winds of democracy"

The next thing to watch is if the gulf draw down their purchases of Treasury bonds

It could be also straightforward , they did release more oil than their quota , there is no point cheesing off their friends and it might be a sweet gesture to Iran too
production increase would then happen in batches
a couple of months on , a couple of months off

It could be that they don't want to trash their wells by overpumping

any or all of the above , plus some unknowns like the internal fight for the succession

[americandream]

The Saudi elite are playing a dangerous game as they are as dispensable as the next Saudi Chalabi is queuing up to backstab them. They can't win a stand off with the West which extends after all, from Finland to New Zealand and covers an awful lot of acreage and military might (not forgetting a tendency to close ranks), in between. Whether they realise this is another matter although paradoxically, I suspect that the West would probably give a nod and a wink to actions driven by desperate self preservation in a bid to preserve the user friendly presence of the Saud's in the Muslim world.

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ctually, US oil inventories are now plunging downward at an unusually rapid rate---