Sadad al-Husseini’s statement distancing himself from the Wikileaked cable written by US diplomats in Riyadh is most interesting for what it leaves out. While robustly denying claims that were not actually made in the original message - always a good tactic when you're on the back foot - the former VP Exploration & Production for Saudi Aramco pointedly fails to deny the most important passage. (more…)...

So, Wikileaks has finally delivered some news you can use. A cable written by US diplomats in Riyadh towards the end of 2007 contains a clear and 'insider' forecast of Saudi peak production in the early 2020s. (more…)...

Much excitement today about the Wikileaks revelation that Sadad al-Husseini, former head of exploration and production at Saudi Aramco, told the US consul general in Ryadh in 2007 that Saudi Arabia's reserves have been overstated by 300 billion barrels, or some 40%. Sadad has been saying publicly the world's reserves are falsely inflated by that figure for several years now - as first reported by lastoilshock.com. It just wasn't clear those 300bn missing barrels were all in Saudi. Or, more precisely, not in Saudi....

There is much to welcome in the new coalition’s energy policy. (more…)...

So that’s it. Tomorrow we troop to the polling stations with almost no discussion of the most critical issue: energy. (more…)...

It was never much to look at, but I was sorry to see it go. On the mean streets of Hampstead, my 13 year old Peugeot 406 diesel estate (42mpg) has reached the end of the road. (more…)...

Peak oil has come a long way in the last few years: from bug-eyed millennial cult to mainstream consensus, embracing academia, much of the oil industry, and now the US military. There’s a growing consensus global oil production will peak this side of 2020, with many forecasts clustered around the middle the decade and some well within the next parliament. Strange then that even now the mainstream parties’ manifestos contain not a single word on the subject. (more…)...