Figures don't lie?

Would you believe that OPEC does not publish any ‘official’ figures as to its production? Any production and reserve numbers you see come from a company called Petrologistics. Its headquarters are over a grocery store in Geneva. It claims to get its numbers from spies in every OPEC port. Now, it helps a little bit in decision-making if you know what reality is. But, it appears as though we don’t know how much oil really exists in so-called proven reserves.

Can we believe the Saudis, who supposedly possess 25% of the world’s ‘proven’ reserves, that they can supply 20 million barrels of oil a day for the next 50 years? Interestingly, 90% of their production comes from fields discovered almost 40 years ago; all of these fields require extensive water injection to keep pumping at a good rate, which is a sign of old age in the oil field business.

If their numbers are wrong, what does that say about the energy situation going forward?