"THE INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF A DEPLETED SAUDI ARABIAN OIL RESERVES"

The online encyclopedia the Wikipedia says that"Saudi Arabia has the world's largest oil reserves and is the world's largest oil exporter. Oil accounts for more than 90% of exports and nearly 75% of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state". The global economy of the 21st century is powered and driven by oil. All advanced economies, emerging economies and the developing economies are all oil dependent for their national growth and survival.

For decades nobody ever doubted the true estimates of the oil reserves of the Saudi Arabia. But the international whistle blower,  the Wikileaks in 2011 released a classified United States diplomatic cable report about the Saudi Arabian oil reserves. The cable says that "First it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco executives and energy optimists would like." The cable's reports were published in the The Guardian newspaper of the United Kingdom in 2011 also. The cable cited the opinions of one Sadad al-Husseini who directs the exploration and the production at the Saudi Arabian government owned state oil company Aramco for 12 years until 2004.

The American diplomatic cable leaked by the Wikileaks shows a serious doubt about the actual oil reserves that the world's largest oil producer and exporter truly have in its reserves. The Saudi Arabian government for many years claimed to have about 716 billion barrels of oil in its reserves. Many oil experts around the world say the actual reserves may be 40% lesser or around 300 billion barrels of oil left untapped. This development is of a great concern to the American government in particular that relies on the oil from the Arabian desert and is the largest buyer of the Saudi Arabian oil as well as the whole world's largest buyer and consumer of oil.

The actual amount of the oil that is left in the reserves of Saudi Arabia is the primary factor that will determine the true price of oil in the international market and what we will pay for oil around the world at the pumps in the gasoline or petrol stations. Downgrading the size and the amount of the oil reserves that are left in Saudi Arabia oil fields will send the price of oil skyrocketing around the world. The more oil that is pumped out daily from the Saudi Arabian oil fields to the international oil market, the cheaper the oil will be worldwide.

The nations of the world today in this 21st century human universe are all oil addicts. A serious depletion in the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia will translate into a global oil crisis around the world. The international implications of this development cannot be underestimated. The nations around the world may face political crises, economic hardships and social  uprisings if the price of oil rises sporadically in the nearest future. The economies of the many nations will likely collapse or grind to a final halt leading to high unemployment and inflation. The prices of goods and services around the world will also shoot up rapidly with less oil to buy at a higher price internationally.