TWILIGHT IN THE DESERT….Have you had your fill of peak oil yet? Are you thirsty for one last tidbit?
Sure you are! A month ago I mentioned that I had received a copy of Matt Simmons’s Twilight in the Desert and would be reviewing it shortly. “Shortly” ? i.e., the June issue of the Monthly ? has now arrived, so here’s the review.
As it happens, the review eventually morphed into less of a review per se and more of a review essay on the general subject of peak oil that happens to pay more than the usual attention to the subject of Simmons’s book: namely, the future of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, which he thinks is not quite as bright as the Saudis claim. In fact, Simmons is downright gloomy. He thinks that Saudi Arabia’s public pronouncements that they can increase their oil production for decades to come is mostly based on wishful thinking, and he further thinks that this is seriously bad news for the future of oil production. After all, if Saudi Arabia, home of the biggest and best oil fields in the world, is in trouble, the rest of the oil producing world must really be hurting.
Is he right? Go read and decide for yourself!
