First published in the The Independent on Sunday, 27 February 2011. Oil prices surged to a thirty-month high this week as the turmoil in Libya cut supplies by over 1 million barrels per day, raising the chances of a global supply shock that could push the economy back into recession. Brent crude reached almost $120 per barrel, its highest level since August 2008, as international oil companies pulled out and foreign workers fled the country. (more…)...

As the last oilman out of Iran in 1979, Jeremy Gilbert knows just how it feels to be caught up in a Middle Eastern revolution. Hospitalized and desperately weak with hepatitis, he was left behind in the general evacuation and only escaped by walking through Iraq – after being forced to kiss the shoes of a border official. (more…)...

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…)...