Wikileaks on Saudi oil reserves being 40% below stated reserves

A WikiLeaks story:
[url=http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/05/08/136112743/peak-oil-and-wikileaks-story-that-got-away]
Have Saudis Overstated How Much Oil Is Left?[/url]

While the world remains transfixed by the Egyptian revolt a crisis with equally profound global consequences is quietly brewing elsewhere in the Middle East: WikiLeaks this week released U.S. diplomatic cables suggesting that Saudi Arabia may have vastly overstated its oil reserves — if true that could dramatically accelerate the arrival of the long-feared “peak oil” moment when oil production hits its final high before slowly declining keeping prices rising for the foreseeable future and slowing global economic growth. But not all industry analysts are convinced by the claims in the cables.

The diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassy in Riyadh between 2007 and 2009 cite a former senior executive of Saudi Arabia’s state-run Aramco oil company as revealing to American officials that the country’s official estimate of 716 billion barrels of oil reserves is well hogwash; the real figure is about 40% lower than that according to the oil executive Sadad al-Husseini a geologist who until 2004 headed Aramco’s exploration department — a seemingly impeccable source.