Chapter 9 Summary and Analysis

With Saudi Arabia's major oilfields seemingly reaching, and perhaps surpassing maturity, Saudi Arabia has begun searching for alternative sources of oil in order to maintain its position as the world's oil supplier. Rather than seeking new discoveries, Saudi Arabia invests most of its capital in reviving several old fields. These fields, which were shut down years ago due to poor performance or poor quality oil, have now become Saudi Arabia's future prospects. To many, this is evidence that Saudi Arabia is running out of oil and prospects and are making a last-ditch effort to recover oil and save their national economy. Despite the history of problems and poor performance of these reserves, Saudi Arabian officials make impressive predictions about their future production levels. The pressing question is why (if these wells have in fact such great potential) they have not been...