Here's intro:
SAMSAM BAKHTIARI, Dr Ali Morteza, Private capacity
CHAIR (Senator Siewert)—I welcome Dr Samsam Bakhtiari. These are public hearings,
although the committee may agree to a request to have evidence heard in camera or may
determine that certain evidence should be heard in camera. I remind all witnesses that in giving
evidence to the committee they are protected by parliamentary privilege. It is unlawful for
anyone to threaten or disadvantage a witness on account of evidence given to a committee, and
such action may be treated as a contempt by a committee. It is also a contempt to give false or
misleading evidence to a committee. If a witness objects to answering a question, the witness
should state the ground on which the objection is taken and the committee will consider whether
it will insist on an answer, having regard to the ground which is claimed. If the committee
determines to insist on an answer, a witness may request to have that answer given in camera
and can also ask for that at any other time. For this part of the program, with the committee’s
agreement, I propose that we first hear Dr Samsam Bakhtiari’s opening remarks and then go to
questions, firstly on the issue of the key peak oil arguments then looking at the sceptical, antipeak
arguments. I would like to welcome Dr Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, who has been kind enough
to rearrange his schedule so that he can appear before us and speak with us. I invite you to make
an opening statement.
Dr Samsam Bakhtiari—Thank you, Madam Chair and distinguished senators. I will begin
with a short opening statement for you to consider. Crude oil is a commodity unlike any other. It
is simultaneously a strategic raw material, a unique industrial feedstock and the most essential of
fuels. It is also the most conveniently and widely traded form of energy and therefore the swing
element in the world’s energy mix. It is no wonder that the price of crude oil is the most
important figure quoted daily worldwide. Its relevance could well rise significantly in the near
future as the impact of peak oil or, in other words, the peaking of global crude oil production,
becomes evident to all and sundry.
At present, worldwide crude oil output is stagnant at around 81 million barrels a day, give or
take one million barrels. OPEC’s 11 member countries are now limited to a maximum of 31
million barrels per day, having produced only 29.35 million barrels in May 2006, and the socalled
non-OPEC countries, which represent the rest of the world, are capped at 50 million
barrels per day. Thus the world now produces and consumes some 30 billion barrels in each
single year.
Most of the world’s major producers are struggling to keep oil production on an even keel,
especially both the OPEC and non-OPEC champions—that is, Saudi Arabia and Russia—which
are both producing some nine million barrels a day at present while facing almost
insurmountable problems to avoid declines in the near future. Moreover, most of the world’s
supergiant oilfields are now getting old and some of them have entered terminal decline. Suffice
it to mention the three largest ones: Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar, Mexico’s Cantarell and Kuwait’s
Greater Burgan oilfields, which are surely but steadily going downhill. The last supergiant to be
discovered was the Kashagan oilfield in the north Caspian Sea offshore from Kazakhstan back in
1999, and it is now scheduled to begin initial production in 2008-09.
