Have The Giant Oil Fields Peaked?

Ghawar is the largest oil field in the world. It measures roughly 170 miles by 19 miles. Its location is 62 miles southwest of Dhahran in the Eastern Province of Saudia Arabia.

Ghawar produces 4.5 million barrels per day. Ghawar  is one of the four oil fields in the world that produces over one million barrels of oil a day.

Saudi Aramco, state owned by Saudia Arabia, is in charge of the oil fields. The company has said that the oil fields have not peaked yet; their claim is that almost half of the reserves have been tapped into.

Matthew R. Simmons, chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International, said that the world has already hit peak oil. In an interview with Bloomberg in 2007, Simmons said that the price of oil could raise to $300 a barrel in the near future.

Simmons, one of the world’s top experts on peak oil, said that the impending oil crisis needs to be addressed sooner, and not later.

In an interview with Economist.com in July of 2008, Mr. Simmons expressed that the world’s oil analysts are far too optimistic about the longevity of oil production of major wells that exist. The pinnacle of oil production may have been reached.

What happens when the Ghawar runs dry?