The Fading Twilight of Oil

Houston investment banker Matthew Simmons is somewhat surprised and obviously pleased that his 2005 ‘Twilight in the Desert’ has now surpassed 100,00 copies in print — making it a best seller of sorts — and that it is now available in German, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

But what really pleases him is that despite early and inaccurate accusations that his book criticizes Saudi Aramco for mismanaging Saudi Arabia’s giant oil fields, his research efforts have won the praise of the very people who assumed they were the target of his pen.


That praise, however, hasn’t tempered his conviction that the world as we know it is about to change irrevocably as the demand for petroleum outpaces supply.

In this exclusive interview, Simmons talks about the changes he’s observed in the oil and gas industry since the release of ‘Twilight’ in May, 2005.

“Oil prices have gone from $60 to $100,” he replied. “if they had gone from $60 to $10, there would be a lot of people saying, ‘That idiot from Houston, obviously he was wrong…

“A lot of people attribute the price rise to hedge funds and fear factors… No, the market is really tight.”

EV World