In a speech to the Institute of Petroleum on November 15, 1999, Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney said: “[B]y 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? …While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies…”
– Dick Cheney, “Full text of Dick Cheney’s speech at the IP Autumn lunch,” Institute of Petroleum, Nov. 15, 1999