Wikileaks confirm Saudi cheating on oil reserves

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Wikileaks has just released 4 cables that may confirm that as broadly speculated by peak oil analysts, the theories about an imminent crude crunch may be in fact true. As the Guardian reports on 4 just declassified cables, "The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%."
Just to put in perspective what it means, keeping the present trends, just to replace the oil reserves that will be exhausted and to meet the growth in demand, between now and 2030 we will need 64 mb/d of new oil-production capacity, six times the size of Saudi Arabia’s capacity today.
Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."

The cables published today by The Guardian can be found at links below:

• Saudi oil company oversold ability to increase production, embassy told
• Saudi Arabia tackles western shift towards energy independence
• US queries Saudi Arabia's influence over oil prices
• US concern over Saudi Arabia oil production