Love or hate the messenger, but if the latest news coming out of WikiLeaks is accurate, we may have to reconsider our oil choices much sooner than we first thought.

A secret cable released by WikiLeaks reveals that U.S. experts have secretly known for some time now that Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 40 percent, or 300 billion barrels. If the information is true, our crude oil prices will rise tremendously over the next couple of years, the Guardian reports.

In the cable, Saudi official, Sadad al-Husseini, who was formerly the head of exploration for the state-run monopoly Aramco, is quoted saying that he believes peak oil production may occur by 2012.

This news comes as oil prices have already risen to over $100 a barrel because of global demand and tensions in the middle-east.

According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini told the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 that “Aramco’s 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached,” Guardian reports.

Husseini, however, said that while the demand could be met in 10 years, oil prices would certainly spike before then.

One cable said: “According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray.”

While U.S. officials have never publicly admitted to oil production problems before, a shortage of oil, at a time when the world is still woefully dependent on it, could result in prices skyrocketing and other larger geopolitical problems, the Guardian writes.

“Our mission now questions how much the Saudis can now substantively influence the crude markets over the long term,” a U.S. cable read. “Clearly they can drive prices up, but we question whether they any longer have the power to drive prices down for a prolonged period.”

Clearly, the problem exists — now we wait and watch whether Congress continues its subsidies to oil companies, or puts that money into finding clean energy alternatives. Times is of the essence here, and as Obama said at the State of The Union speech last month, “Clean-energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean-energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling.”