© Evgeniy Odinokov / Sputnik
The bold claim was made by the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman during a lengthy interview with Bloomberg, published Friday. Both China and Russia will eventually "disappear" from the market, while Riyadh would still fare well despite the potential decline of demand for oil, the prince said.
"We believe that China will be decreased sharply if not disappeared after five years from today. And other countries will continue every day to disappear as countries producing oil. Nineteen years from today, Russia will have declined heavily if not disappeared with 10 million barrels," he stated.
"So comparing the rise of the demand for oil and the disappearing supplier, Saudi Arabia needs to supply more in the future. So we don't believe that there is any risk in that area for Saudi Arabia."
The "prediction" raised some eyebrows in Moscow, with officials issuing a humble reminder to the royal that his oil was limited as well.
Deputy chief of State Duma Committee on economics, Sergey Kalashnikov warned that Saudi Arabia hasn't unlimited reserves either, adding that its oil fields are "shrinking."
"I don't know on what exactly this evaluation is based. Russia has a great deal of probable [oil] reserves," Kalashnikov stated. The prediction, voiced by the Saudi royal, would unlikely affect oil markets by any means, according to the Russian official.
Given the current rates of extraction only active - ready to be extracted - oil fields will last in Russia for the next 33 years, rector of the Russian State Geological Prospecting University, Vadim Kosyanov, told RIA Novosti earlier this week.
Comment: It's not clear what these predictions are based upon, but what is apparent is that reason, practicality and foresight (to name just a few) are qualities sorely lacking in Saudi's elites, especially when compared to those of Russia and China: