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How
Soon Will Saudi Arabia Turn to Nuclear Energy (Page 1 o |
How soon will Saudi Arabia join the nuclear
club? You might be surprised with our investigation. How will this
change the world energy picture Water desalination will be the
driving force behind Saudi entry into nuclear energy.
While
a growing number of countries have announced their civilian nuclear
energy ambitions over the past twelve months, no other country is
likely to have more of a psychological impact on the nuclear energy
picture than Saudi Arabia. We believe the Kingdom natural gas
and water problems will lead them to nuclear, sooner rather than
later, probably as early as this year.
After our interview
with Kevin Bambrough, which resulted in the widely read article,
?Explosion in Nuclear Energy Demand Coming,we began more deeply
researching Bambrough conclusion. He believes the overwhelming
growth in nuclear energy will continue to drive the uranium bull
market much higher than is suspected. He believes the uranium
renaissance has gone beyond the envelope of just a mining inventory
shortage. We researched this further during the course of our
investigation into uranium and geopolitics. We were surprised by
what we discovered, and continue to be stunned by how accurate Mr.
Bambrough forecast is likely to play out. We included the special
sub-section, which follows, in our soon-to-be-published, A Practical
Investor Guide to Uranium Stocks. Below is a sneak preview.
An April 2006 UPI news item confirmed what many have long believed.
It won't be long before Saudi Arabia launches a nuclear project.
Kuwaiti researcher Abdullah al-Nufaisi told seminar attendees in
Qatar that Saudi Arabia is preparing a nuclear program. He said the
government was being urged to launch a nuclear project by Saudi
scientists, but had not yet received the blessing by the royal
family. Social, not energy, issues could help the Saudi royals
embark on a large-scale nuclear program.
Of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia 24 million subjects, more than 40 percent are under 18
years of age. While still manageable, the country
infrastructure is not prepared to deal with its explosive population
growth. The two biggest problems facing Saudi Arabia are potential
water and electricity shortages. True, its super oilfields may also
have peaked in production and might move into tertiary recovery, but
that is unknown. An Islamic revolution, similar to what Iran
suffered in the 1970s is probably foremost in the King mind.
Civil unrest might come about should his subjects suffer from
insufficient electricity and inadequate water supplies. One need
only look at the widespread electricity shortages Syria experienced
in the 1980s and early 1990s.
As reported in the October
14, 2004 issue of Arab Oil and Gas, the Saudis lag well behind
Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in per capita
energy consumption. The rate of natural gas consumption, which
produces Saudi electricity, increased less than Egypt and
Syria. Total energy consumption dropped by 3.5 percent in 1999 and
2000.
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