Ali Morteza Samsam Bakhtiari (1945 – 30 October 2007) was an Iranian author and oil expert employed by the

National Iranian Oil Company The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; fa, شرکت ملّی نفت ایران, Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Ir ...

(NIOC). He held a number of senior positions with this organization beginning in 1971. He was also an adviser to the

Oil Depletion Analysis Centre The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) is an independent, UK-registered educational charity. The centre is working to raise international public awareness and promote better understanding of the world's oil depletion and peak oil problem. It ...

Biography

Bakhtiari was a member of the Bakhtiari tribe. He held a Ph.D. in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology The Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology are two institutes of higher education in Switzerland (part of the ETH Domain): * Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people ...

in Zurich,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He had been a part-time lecturer for the Technical Faculty at

Tehran University The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

for many years. Bakhtiari wrote a number of short essays and is the author of ''Peaks and Troughs'' which is about the modern

history of Iran The history of Iran is intertwined with the history of a larger region known as Greater Iran, comprising the area from Anatolia in the west to the borders of Ancient India and the Syr Darya in the east, and from the Caucasus and the Eurasian S ...

. Bakhtiari suggested that it would require an act of god for the world to avoid warring over depleting

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

resources Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon their a ...

. He also believed that a peak in

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

would be more shocking than

peak oil Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it is argued that production will begin an irreversible decline. It is related to the distinct concept of oil depletion; while ...

because natural gas is less fluid and requires pipelines and

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

facilities to export overseas. Bakhtiari was featured in the 2004 documentary ''

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. Descr ...

''. Bakhtiari died suddenly of a heart attack in 2007. His funeral and burial were in Tehran. He was survived by his children, Amir Bahman and Golbenaz Samsam Bakhtiari.

Quotes

*"The big risk in Saudi Arabia is that

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 ...

's rate of decline increases to an alarming point. That will set bells ringing all over the oil world because Ghawar underpins Saudi output and Saudi undergirds worldwide production." *"As for Iran, the usually accepted official is almost over any realistic assay."

Bibliography

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References

External links

A collection of articles written by Bakhtiari
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakhtiari, Ali Morteza Samsam 2007 deaths Date of birth missing 1945 births Bakhtiari people People from Masjed Soleyman 20th-century Iranian engineers Iranian non-fiction writers 20th-century non-fiction writers Deaths from heart disease

Biography

Quotes

Bibliography

See also

References

External links