Analyst's note:  The Wall Street Journal reports that Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal issued an extraordinary warning in a letter to Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and others that the U.S. boom of shale oil and gas will create an urgent need for Saudi to diversify its economy. 

Imagine a world where Saudi Arabia coundn't spend billions of dollars every year funding mosques and madrassas around the world, and exporting materials and imams that espouse radical Islamist ideology.  Clearly fracking and shale are now threatening the Saudi economy.  Investors are pointing out the Kingdom's ecomony is increasingly vulnerable.

In the mean time, Obama's EPA Covers Up the Safety of Fracking. 

[....] Shale formations in which fracking is used are thousands of feet deep. Drinking-water aquifers are generally only a hundred feet deep. There's a lot of solid rock in between. [....]

[....] Thanks to fracking, which has boosted an otherwise dismal economy, the U.S is awash in oil and gas, and on its way to becoming a major energy exporter.

OPEC would like nothing better than to see the EPA shut down fracking entirely, and the EPA would like to comply as part of the Obama administration's war on the fossil fuels it regards as the energy source of the past. [....]

Keep it coming "big oil" ....!

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A Saudi prince has warned that his oil-reliant nation is under threat because of fracking technology being developed elsewhere around the world.

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said the Gulf Arab kingdom needed to reduce its reliance on crude oil and diversify its revenues.

His warning comes as rising shale energy supplies in the United States cut global demand for Saudi oil.

In an open letter to his country's oil minister Ali al Naimi and other government heads, published on Sunday via his Twitter account, Prince Alwaleed said demand for oil from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member states was "in continuous decline".

He said Saudi Arabia's heavy dependence on oil was "a truth that has really become a source of worry for many".

He added that the world's biggest crude oil exporter should implement "swift measures" to diversify its economy.

Prince Alwaleed, owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, is unusually outspoken for a top Saudi businessman.

But his warning reflects growing concern in private among many Saudis about the long-term impact of shale technology.

It is allowing the US and Canada to tap unconventional oil deposits which they could not reach just a few years ago. [....]