An anonymous whistleblower at the International Energy Agency has told The Guardian newspaper that the world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit. The whistleblower, described as a senior official at the agency, accused the United States of playing an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves. The whistleblower told The Guardian, “Many inside the organization believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90 million to 95 million barrels a day would be impossible, but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further.”