In his 2005 New York Times best-selling book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy , renowned oil analyst Matthew Simmons outlined his belief that Saudi Arabia’s giant Ghawar oil field would soon begin a terminal decline that would result in permanently falling global oil production. Indeed, from the post-recession lows of 2003 until peaking in 2008, oil prices seemed to prove peak oil proponents correct — with prices seemingly on a long-term exponential increase. However, what Mr. Simmons and other peak oil theorists failed to consider is that America’s shale oil revolution could not only make up for Ghawar’s production fall, but even replace the field entirely. Permian Basin: dethroning the Saudis According to Pioneer Natural Resources , the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico holds an estimated 75 billion barrels of recoverable oil, an estimate that is up 50% in […]