Matthew Roy Simmons (April 7, 1943 – August 8, 2010) was founder and chairman emeritus of Simmons & Company International, and was a prominent figure in the field of

peak oil Peak oil is the point when global oil production reaches its maximum rate, after which it will begin to decline irreversibly. The main concern is that global transportation relies heavily on gasoline and diesel. Adoption of electric vehicles ...

. Simmons was motivated by the

1973 energy crisis In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after E ...

to create an investment banking firm catering to oil companies. He served as an energy adviser to U.S. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

and was a member of the National Petroleum Council and the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

. Simmons, who lived in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas, died at his vacation home in

North Haven, Maine North Haven is a New England town, town and island in Knox County, Maine, Knox County, Maine, United States, in Penobscot Bay. The town is both a year-round island community and a prominent summer colony. The population was 417 at the 2020 United ...

, on August 8, 2010, at the age of 67."Utah native Matthew Simmons, energy investment banker, dies in Maine"
''Deseret News'' (2010-08-09). Retrieved on 2012-05-20. The death was ruled "accidental drowning with heart disease a contributing factor". Simmons was the author of the book ''

Twilight in the Desert ''Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy'' is a book by American investment banker Matthew Simmons. The text was initially published on June 10, 2005 by John Wiley & Sons. The book focuses on the petroleum indust ...

'', published in 2005. His examination of oil reserve decline rates helped raise awareness of the unreliability of

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

oil reserves An oil is any chemical polarity, nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobe, hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilicity, lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable ...

. He gave numerous presentations on

and

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

shortages. Simmons believed that the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing list of global issues, global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in R ...

's report, ''

The Limits to Growth ''The Limits to Growth'' (''LTG'') is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential Economic growth, economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer ...

'', is more accurate than usually acknowledged. Simmons was the founder of the Ocean Energy Institute in Maine.Ocean Energy Institute Blog
/ref> His vision was to make Maine a leader in energy from offshore wind and ocean forces. The Ocean Energy Institute ceased operations in 2011.

Saudi Arabian oil reserves

In his book, Simmons argues that production from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and especially from

Ghawar Ghawar (Arabic: الغوار) is an oil field located in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Measuring (some ), it is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world, and accounts for roughly a third of the cumulative ...

—the world's largest oil field—will peak in the near future, if it has not done so already. Simmons bases his case on hundreds of internal documents from

Saudi Aramco Saudi Aramco ( ') or Aramco (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a majority state-owned petroleum and natural gas company that is the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. , it is the fourth- l ...

, professional journals and other authoritative sources. However, by 2016, Saudi production had increased by more than one million barrels per day.

Oil price wager

In August 2005, Simmons bet John Tierney and Rita Simon, the widow of

Julian Simon Julian Lincoln Simon (February 12, 1932 – February 8, 1998) was an American economist. He was a professor of economics and business administration at the University of Illinois from 1963 to 1983 before later moving to the University of Marylan ...

, $2500 each that the

price of oil The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC ...

averaged over the entire calendar year of 2010 would be at least $200 per barrel (in 2005 dollars). Simmons would have lost this bet by a very wide margin: 2010 average oil prices did not even reach $100. The world-wide economic collapse created

demand destruction Demand destruction is a permanent downward shift on the demand curve in the direction of lower demand of a commodity, such as energy products, induced by a prolonged period of high prices or constrained supply. In the context of the oil indust ...

that greatly decreased the demand for oil, causing prices to fall.

Appearances and interviews

Simmons made contributions to the films ''

Peak Oil – Imposed by Nature Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...

'', '' The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil'' (

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

), ''

The End of Suburbia ''The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream'' is a 2004 documentary film concerning peak oil and its implications for the suburban lifestyle, written and directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Gregory Greene. Desc ...

'', '' Crude Impact'', and '' Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash'', and appeared on

World Energy Television The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

''World Energy Video Interview, August 2008''

Deepwater Horizon oil spill conjectures

Simmons made several controversial comments and predictions regarding the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

and BP's solvency, including: * Talking with

Bloomberg TV Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by diversified information and media private company Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, rea ...

Mark Crumpton Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

Lizzie O'Leary Lizzie O'Leary is an American journalist. She has worked with CNN, NPR, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo News, ABC and the BBC. She holds degrees from Columbia University and Williams College. She was the host of Marketplace Weekend until the end of its run ...

and Julie Hyman about BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, Simmons said, "If it were my family I'd evacuate now, while you still have time". * During a June 9, 2010, interview with Fortune, Simmons claimed that BP would "have about a month before they claim Chapter 11". * On June 9, 2010, Simmons was interviewed by

Barron's ''Barron's'' (stylized in all caps) is an American weekly magazine and newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, since 1921. Founded as ''Barron's National Financial Weekly'' in 1921 by Clarence W. Barron (1855–19 ...

journalist Tieman Ray. Simmons disclosed that he personally held an 8,000 share short position in BP stock. As BP's stock price went lower, Simmons was benefiting financially amid fears of bankruptcy. * During a July 7, 2010, interview on CNBC Simmons claimed that scientists were reporting the flow rate from the oil spill was "spewing 120,000 barrels a day into the Gulf" and that there have been estimates that we have "lost oxygen for 40% of the Gulf of Mexico". He further claimed that the relief wells will not stop the oil spill. * A week later, during a July 15, 2010 interview with

KPFK KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, which serves Southern California. It was the second of five stations in the non-commercial, listener-sponsored Pacifica Radio network. KPFK 90.7 FM be ...

– Pacifica Los Angeles, Simmons asserted that the relief wells and the capping process on the Macondo wellhead are publicity stunts and that the real vent is up to ten miles (16 km) away. He said that an enormous pool of crude oil is accumulating below the sea floor, releasing poisonous gases and waiting to be whipped up by a hurricane. * Previously, on May 26, 2010, Matthew Simmons was a guest on 'The

Dylan Ratigan Dylan Jason Ratigan (born April 19, 1972) is an American businessman, author, film producer, former host of MSNBC's '' The Dylan Ratigan Show'' and political commentator for '' The Young Turks''. He was a candidate for the U.S. House of Represen ...

Show' on

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

, where he explained his reasons for believing that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill involved not only the leak being monitored by BP's video-camera-equipped ROVs remotely operated vehicles, but another, much bigger leak, several miles away.

Wikileaks cable mention

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

reported that Simmons was mentioned in a leaked

U.S State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of ...

cable dated November 2007: COMMENT: While al-Husseini believes that Saudi officials overstate capabilities in the interest of spurring foreign investment, he is also critical of international expectations. He stated that the IEA's expectation that Saudi Arabia and the Middle East will lead the market in reaching global output levels of over 100 million barrels/day is unrealistic, and it is incumbent upon political leaders to begin understanding and preparing for this "inconvenient truth." Al-Husseini was clear to add that he does not view himself as part of the "peak oil camp," and does not agree with analysts such as Matthew Simmons. He considers himself optimistic about the future of energy, but pragmatic with regards to what resources are available and what level of production is possible. While he fundamentally contradicts the Aramco company line, al-Husseini is no doomsday theorist. His pedigree, experience and outlook demand that his predictions be thoughtfully considered.

Death

Simmons was found dead on August 8, 2010, in his hot tub. An autopsy by the state medical examiner's office the next day concluded that he died from accidental drowning with heart disease as a contributing factor."Obituary: MATTHEW ROY SIMMONS 1943–2010"
''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''. August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2010.

References

External links

Ocean Energy Institute
�� Simmons' last project, intended to eventually harvest massive reserves of wind energy offshore from Maine, using synthesis of ammonia fuel to be shipped by tanker. * // Integrity in Investment Research - Jim Jarrell's criticism of ''Twilight''
ASPO USA Peak Oil conference at Boston University, 27 October 2006

Matthew Simmons, 5 audio interviews: 6 August 2005 – 7 April 2007.
The Economist: Face Value
Review of Matthew Simmons in The Economist
Radio Broadcast
True News broadcast on June 28, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Matthew 1943 births 2010 deaths American futurologists American chief executives American sustainability advocates People from North Haven, Maine University of Utah alumni Harvard Business School alumni People from Kaysville, Utah Economists from Maine Economists from Utah