Saudis: World Energy Resources Far Bigger Than Perceived

As Exxon bemoans that it can’t find enough oil, Saudi Arabia is crowing how much of it there is about. Saudi Aramco President Abdullah S. Jum’ah told the World Energy Congress that liquid energy resources are far bigger than expected, and he is “optimistic” over the future.
Jum’ah said there were enough conventional and non-conventional liquid energy resources available for petroleum to be a significant part of the global energy mix for decades to come.
“In general, we have grossly underestimated mankind’s ability to find new reserves of petroleum, as well as our capacity to raise recovery rates and tap fields once thought inaccessible to produce,” he said. “I’m confident that this growth trend can continue,” he added.
According to Jum’ah, taking into account both conventional and non-conventional resources, there are 13-16 trillion barrels of total in-place liquids available worldwide.
“To put those figures in perspective, to date we have consumed only 1.1 trillion barrels of oil, or 7 to 9 percent of resources in places, nearly all of that was conventional oil,” he said.
So he doesn’t buy into the peak oil theory then….