WASHINGTON – Boone Pickens, the corporate raider who now operates a Dallas-based energy hedge fund, has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $750 million. He is so rich that he once wrote the federal government a tax check for $27 million.

So when he fetches up across the table offering stock tips and insights on the long-term energy outlook, it’s worth paying some attention. The scene was Wednesday night, at a Capitol Hill restaurant, where was convened a sitting of the “Saturday Evening Club” hosted by the American Spectator and its editor in chief, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.

Mr. Pickens, who is 76 years old, was trained as a geologist. The geology school at Oklahoma State University is named after him. “I know the subject. I know what I’m talking about,” he says, a comment that seems slightly unnecessary, coming as it does after he told the anecdote about his $27 million tax check.

Mr. Pickens says that the planet has the capacity to produce 82 million barrels of oil a day. And he says that by a year from now – the fourth quarter of 2005 – the world’s requirement for oil will be between 84 million barrels a day and 86 million barrels a day.

“There has been a fundamental change,” he said. “You are going to have to kill demand with price. These fields decline.”

As a result, Mr. Pickens, who correctly predicted that oil would hit $50 a barrel, now says it will hit $60 before it hits $40. “I don’t think we’re going to see $40 oil again,” he says. “We’re through $40 oil.”

“I think the next hurdle is $100 to fill up your tank,” he says, predicting gasoline prices of $3 or $3.25 a gallon “at some point.”

There are some additional sources that can be tapped. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge might bring the Alaskan pipeline to its full capacity of 2 million barrels a day as opposed to its current 700,000 barrels a day. The Canadian oil sands could produce 9.5 million barrels a day, a possibility that Mr. Pickens is betting on through an investment in Suncor Energy. “If you want a stock tip tonight, buy Suncor,” he says. “The biggest investment I’ve got is in Suncor.”

Another possible new source, he says, is the “oil shale on the Western slope of the Rocky Mountains.”

But even as additional sources are tapped, the existing sources decline and are depleted.

“You’re now halfway through the reserves in the world,” he says. “You’ve produced a trillion barrels. You have a trillion to go.”

He predicts the world will run out of oil in 2100, and that by 2030 or 2050 the transition to an alternative fuel will be in full swing.

The conversation turns to what that alternative will be. “Solar can’t do anything,” he says. “I was in the windmill business…I lost $4 million on it in 4 years….I hate those windmills.”

As for ethanol, he said that for it to replace gasoline, the entire country from Chicago to Los Angeles would have to be planted with corn.

Coal is one energy source on which Mr. Pickens is bullish. He mentions, favorably, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy.

And he says that if he were appointed energy tsar, he’d increase the amount of energy that is generated by nuclear power.

Now there’s an intriguing possibility. “I’d love for the president to appoint me energy tsar,” he says. Mr. Pickens, a major donor to Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, can forget about a job in the White House if Senator Kerry wins the election. If there is a second term for President Bush, though, keep an eye on Mr. Pickens.