Global Oil-Supply Worries Fuel Debate in Saudi Arabia

Former Officials at Odds
Over ‘Peak’ Theory;
Crude Hits High

Sadad al-Husseini and Nansen Saleri raced up the ranks at Saudi Aramco, the world’s most powerful oil company, working together for years to squeeze more crude from Saudi Arabia’s massive fields. Today, the two men have staked out opposite sides of a momentous industry debate.

Mr. Husseini, Aramco’s second-in-command until 2004, says the world faces a brute reality of depleting resources and ever rising prices. Mr. Saleri, until recently the company’s oil-reservoir manager, insists that with enough ingenuity and investment, plenty more oil can be found.


With oil prices having doubled over the past year, political leaders, Wall Street investors, commuters, airlines and car makers are all scrambling to divine where prices will head next. The disparity of opinion between two of the most knowledgeable men in the industry shows how much fog hangs over the most basic question of all — whether oil can be unearthed any faster than it currently is.

At the moment, Mr. Husseini’s pessimistic view is clearly ascendant. Even before this year’s surge in oil prices, there were gloomy industry predictions that world oil output would soon hit a ceiling. U.S. benchmark crude hit a record high on Thursday, propelled by Libyan threats of possible supply cuts, closing at $139.64 a barrel, up more than threefold since 2004.

Wall St. Journal