Reprint. Originally published: 2005.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-414) and index.

"Twilight in the Desert looks behind the curtain to reveal a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible decline. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry analyst Matthew Simmons draws on his own three-plus decades of insider experience and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi petroleum resources and production operations. What he uncovers is a story about Saudi Arabia's troubled oil industry, not to mention its political and societal instability, which differs sharply from the globally accepted Saudi version." "While Saudi officials promise to increase production from current levels if necessary, Twilight in the Desert examines the history of other major oil fields to determine that Saudi Arabia is in fact overproducing its primary resources, and couldn't possibly ramp up production for long. It calls for long-overdue transparency on the part of the Saudis and all significant global oil producers, along with urgently needed energy data reform, and a global energy blueprint for how the world will cope once Saudi oil output has peaked."--BOOK JACKET.

1. The birth of a nation -- 2. The history of major Saudi Arabian oil discoveries -- 3. Saudi Arabia's road to oil market dominance -- 4. The veil of secrecy over Saudi oil reserves and production -- 5. Saudi Aramco -- 6. Oil is not just another commodity -- 7. Ghawar, the king of oilfields -- 8. The second-tier oilfields -- 9. The best of the rest -- 10. Coming up empty in new exploration -- 11. Turning to natural gas -- 12. Saudi oil reserves claims in doubt -- 13. Facing the inevitable -- 14. Reading between the lines of the latest news from Aramco -- 15. Aramco invokes "fuzzy logic" to manage the future of Saudi oil --16. In search of crisper truths among the confident Saudi claims -- 17. Aftermath.