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Published by John Wiley & Sons
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Saudi Arabia is the most important oil producing nation
in history. The secretive Saudi government repeatedly assures the world that
its oil fields are healthy beyond reproach, and that they can maintain and
even increase output at will to meet skyrocketing global demand. But what if they can't? Twilight in the Desert looks behind the curtain to
reveal a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious,
irreversible decline. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry
analyst Matthew Simmons draws on his own three-plus decades of insider experience
and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi petroleum resources
and production operations. What he uncovers is a story about Saudi Arabia's
troubled oil industry, not to mention its political and societal instability,
which differs sharply from the globally accepted Saudi version. It's a story that is provocative and disturbing, based on
undeniable facts, but until now never told in its entirety. Twilight in
the Desert examines numerous aspects of Saudi Arabia and its looming
oil crisis, including: The seventy-year history of modern Saudi Arabia, and
the truth behind its troubling mix of monarchy, conservative Islam, severe
social restrictions, and economic contradictions Why the geological phenomena that created Saudi oil invincibility
now threaten to bring it to an end, far sooner than the world has been led
to believe A field-by-field assessment of twelve key Saudi oil fields,
and how verified shortfalls in their production and potential stand sharply
at odds with unverifiable Saudi rhetoric While Saudi officials promise to increase production from
current levels if necessary, Twilight in the Desert examines the history
of other major oil fields to determine that Saudi Arabia is in fact overproducing
its primary resources, and couldn't possibly ramp up production for long.
It calls for long-overdue transparency on the part of the Saudis and all
significant global oil producers, along with urgently needed energy data
reform, and a global energy blueprint for how the world will cope once Saudi
oil output has peaked. Without question, Saudi Arabian oil fields provide the rest
of the world with its most plentiful, low-cost oil resource. The question
is how long can they continue to keep these critical pipelines open. Twilight
in the Desert answers that question with keen examination instead of
unsubstantiated posturing, and takes its place as one of the most important
books of this still-young century. pub date: 2005-06-17 | | 9780471738763 |
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