Twilight in the Desert; The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2005. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good [pages somewhat 'off white']/Very good. Paul A. Souders (Jacket Photograph), Giel ten Bosc. xxii, [2], 422, [2] pages. Map. Illustrations, Notes. Bibliography. Index. Name of previous owner, Shirley Neff, in ink on fep. Inscribed by the author on the half-title. Inscription reads: June 2005 Shirles. I admire your work to alert people on the real energy issues. Warm regards Mat. This is believed to have been inscribed to the Shirley Neff who was on the staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from Jan 1996 to Mar 2003 (7 years 3 months) where she was responsible for oil and gas, international energy policies, climate change, energy taxes issues. Includes Preface, and Acknowledgments. Part One: From Bedouin to Bourgeoisie; Part Two: The Ebbing of the Saudi Oil Bounty; Part Three: Giants at the Tipping Point; Part Four--Twilight in the Desert. Also includes Appendix A: Methodology; Appendix B: Supporting Technical Data; and Appendix C: The 1974 and 1979 Senate Hearings, Matthew Roy Simmons (April 7, 1943 - August 8, 2010) was founder of Simmons & Company International, and was a prominent figure in the field of peak oil. Simmons was motivated by the 1973 energy crisis to create an investment banking firm catering to oil companies. He served as an energy adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush and was a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Simmons wrote Twilight in the Desert. His examination of oil reserve decline rates helped raise awareness of the unreliability of Middle East oil reserves. Simmons believed that the Club of Rome's report, The Limits to Growth, is more accurate than usually acknowledged. This is a book about Saudi Arabia's oil. It analyzes the present condition of the Saudi Arabian oil exploration and production industry, and it details the real story about the small number of rapidly aging giant and super-giant fields that account for almost all of the oil produced within the kingdom. It asks, as a matter of greatest urgency, whether Saudi Arabia will be able to deliver over the next several decades the oil supplies that the world's consuming nations have come to depend on. Twilight in the Desert reveals 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 three-plus decades of insider experience and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi petroleum resources and production operations. He uncovers 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 answers all readers' questions about Saudi oil and production industries with keen examination instead of unsubstantiated posturing, and takes its place as one of the most important books of this still-young century.