Matthew R. Simmons: A Diminished Future for Saudi Oil

E Magazine: You’re doing the world a real service by shaking up commonly held assumptions about future energy supplies, specifically about how much oil remains in the Middle East, and in particular Saudi Arabia.

Matthew R. Simmons: First of all, thank you. The last thing I wanted to do over the last two years was write a book, but I was unbelievably surprised when I started reading very specific technical papers about these oil fields. It was only when I’d gotten through a hundred of them that I realized that I had done a thorough examination of Saudi oil. And in fact the real risk is not the question of proven reserves, which is a very fuzzy area. The real story is that there are basically just five old, mature fields that account for 90 percent of all Saudi production, and a remarkably small number of wellheads that produce the oil from these fields. It leaves the Saudis with no diversification if any one of the fields suffer a production collapse
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