Crude Awakening
The only hope for meeting growing world demand for oil, say experts, is to tap Saudi Arabia's reserves. A Bush advisor on energy says those reserves don't exist.

As recently as a few years ago, only two groups of people were interested in the arid subject of oil depletion. The first was Texas oil moguls and their lobbyists who roamed the halls of Congress searching out ever juicier tax breaks from our elected representatives. The second was a tiny group of cranks and conspiracy theorists who not only wrote for Scientific American but also frequented the sparsely inhabited corners of the Internet and begged the world to pay attention to the obscure topic of “peak oil”—whether the world wanted to pay attention or not. Fast forward to 2005, and the oil moguls haven't changed much. The peak oil cranks, on the other hand, are cranks no longer. In fact, they've practically become rock stars. Half a dozen books on the subject have come out in the last two years, and magazines from Rolling Stone to National Geographic also have published articles on the subject. The “end of oil” is suddenly a hot topic.

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The above is a book review of Matthew Simmons "Twilight in the Desert." The following is a three part interview with Matthew Simmons

Peak Oil, Saudi Arabia: Part 1

Peak Oil Part 2: Saudi Arabia Decline Rate And The Possiblities Of A Production Collapse

Peak Oil 3: Not Sustainable But Insatiable