World News and Trends: Saudi oil and future geopolitics
Presently Saudi Arabia is home to the largest oil reserves in the world.
Yet Matt Simmons, an energy expert from Houston, Texas (who rightly predicted North America's dwindling natural-gas supplies in the late 1990s), questions whether the Saudis will be able to maintain their role as the global market's greatest oil producer. Simmons thinks that Saudi Arabia's current oil production is fragile at best.
Mr. Simmons bases his concerns on a review of more than 200 analytical papers written by engineers of Aramco, the Saudi state-owned oil company. Mr. Simmons discovered that some of the country's largest oil fields are declining much faster than the world might believe.
Mr. Simmons admits that it's impossible to prove whether it will be a major problem in the future, but he cautioned that it would be catastrophic if the Saudis' oil production declined unexpectedly.
Since World War II, a number of national powers have become dependent on Middle East oil. To be sure, there are other oil reserves throughout the world, but none compare to the rich fields of Saudi Arabia—with Kuwait and Iraq close behind. If the Saudi oil reserves begin to run out, look for even more turmoil in the ever-troubled Middle East. To learn more about the history and future of this region, request your free copy of The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Source: The Washington Post ).
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: March - April 2004
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
