139. PETROLEUM ENGINEER FLAYS SIMMONS FOR SCARE MONGERING

As noted earlier, Matt Simmons has been previously debunked by Ali Daneshy, director of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston. Daneshy is on the record stating that Simmons (an MBA banker, with no technical background or expertise in petroleum engineering) is spreading misinformation about the dangers of water flooding in the Saudi oil fields (see #119). Simmons' views have also been disputed by Sadad Al Husseini, a geology Ph.D. who was formerly the head of Saudi Aramco's exploration department (see #89).

Now another petroleum engineer, Jim Jarrell of the Ross Smith Energy Group, has weighed in with an attack on Simmons' technical errors and scare mongering. From the Resource Investor:

Peak Oil Promoter Flayed for Saudi Reserves Scare Mongering
By Tim Wood
14 Oct 2005 at 03:47 PM EDT
St. LOUIS (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Jim Jarrell, a petroleum engineer and president of Calgary based buy-side research firm, Ross Smith Energy Group, has put himself in the way of an onrushing consensus.

Jarrell recently issued a report mockingly entitled, "Another Day in the Desert: A Response to the Book, Twilight in the Desert". It's a powerful critique of the petro pessimism presented by the book’s author, Matthew Simmons.

The book has played a signature role in propelling Peak Oil issues out of hobbyist discussion groups and onto Fortune 500 boardroom agendas. That's because Simmons is widely acclaimed as an expert with deep experience in the industry. With high oil prices currently lending inferential support to Peak Oil pundits, it has achieved remarkable consentience in the investment community.

Jarrell's acid-washing of Twilight in the Desert does not confront the Peak Oil hypothesis directly. Even so, his analysis of Saudi oil reserves being more plentiful and of adequate quality very clearly undermines some mainstays of Peak Oil.

Jarrell tackles three central issues that Simmons used to support his claim that Saudi Arabia is not the last best hope of oil gluttons - Are Saudi oil reserves grossly overstated?; Can Saudi production rates collapse? Are the Saudis exploring enough or not enough?Source

I'll refer you to the article for details. -- by JD

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Note: I have contacted Tim Wood, the author of the above article, and Mr. Jarrell's article is currently only available to paying customers of the Ross Smith Energy Group.