Oil reserves
2023: Global oil reserves rise 0.4%, to 1.57 trillion barrels
Global proven oil reserves increased by 0.4% in 2023, reaching 1.57 trillion barrels. Data from the annual OPEC statistical bulletin was published in the summer of 2024. The region leading in oil reserves remains the Middle East with a share of 55.5% of global reserves, which is 871.182 billion barrels. The growth of indicators in the region amounted to 0.1% for the year.
Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries in terms of reserves with 267.23 billion barrels (17% of global reserves), followed by Iran with 208.6 billion barrels (13.3%), Iraq with 145.019 billion barrels and the UAE with 113 billion barrels.
.png)
Latin America ranks second among the regions, owning 21.9% of the world's reserves (343.616 billion barrels). Venezuela, despite a 0.1% decline in indicators, maintains a leading position in the region with reserves of 303.008 billion barrels, which is 19.3% of global reserves.
OPEC countries control 79.1% of world oil reserves - 1.241331 trillion barrels, increasing the figure by 0.03%. The OPEC + states have 87.8% of global reserves, which is 1.37788 trillion barrels, with an increase of 0.04%.
Russia kept its reserves at 80 billion barrels, which corresponds to 5.1% of global reserves. The US increased reserves by 5.4% to 45.271 billion barrels, showing significant growth in the sector.
India showed a significant 11% increase in reserves, reaching 4.849 billion barrels. The UK, by contrast, saw the largest contraction among major oil-producing countries, reducing reserves by 16.7% to 1.5 billion barrels.
Brazil increased its oil reserves by 12.2%, bringing them to 14.856 billion barrels, reflecting the overall growth trend in reserves in the Latin American region, where the total increase was 0.4%.
OPEC + countries have a stable growth in reserves, which strengthens their position in the global energy market and the impact on global oil production. The increase in global reserves comes amid rising production, which reached 72.242 million barrels per day in 2023[1]
2018: Countries with largest confirmed oil reserves
2016: Exploration of new oil reserves since 1947 - graph
Oil consumption
2024: Oil market faces two-year deficit closed by stock cuts
Oil demand has continued to grow for the past 5 years. In 2019, the global demand for oil was estimated at 99.7-100 million bpd, and in 2024 already 103.8 million bpd, according to OPEC estimates.
There is a slowdown in demand growth: from 2.5 million bpd in 2023 to + 1.8 million bpd in 2024.
At the same time, oil production is significantly lagging behind. In 2022, the average daily oil surplus was estimated at 0.6 million bpd, in 2023, the oil market was balanced with a nominal deficit of about 0.1 million bpd, and in 2024 the deficit expanded to a record 1.4 million b/d or over 500 million barrels per year, and at the beginning of 2025 the oil deficit was about 1.1 million b/d, but these are OPEC estimates that somewhat inflate demand and underestimate supply.
There is another method of estimating the supply-demand balance - through oil reserves, both commercial and strategic, and in floating storage/tankers.
The total volume of commercial reserves by OECD countries is estimated at 2.75 billion barrels + 1.25 billion strategic government reserves + 1.37 billion in floating storage according to data at the end of 2024 for OECD countries.
But there are also nuances here, Spydell Finance wrote, because not all countries decipher their oil reserves extracted from the bowels, i.e. in commercial, state reserves or in tankers. First of all, this applies to China. In statistics, limited coverage across the OECD.
The total change in global reserves in all storage locations is minus 52 million barrels in 2024, minus 118 million barrels in 2023, + 57 million barrels in 2022, (-242) million barrels in 2021 and + 290 million barrels in 2020.
The only way to balance the gap between oil supply and demand is through changes in reserves. Another thing is that supply and demand accounting is almost always analytical, because there is no single accounting methodology, and most countries either hide data or falsify.
At least through the declared/declared reserves, an actual reduction of 170 million barrels for 2023-2024 or an average of 0.23 million b/d per day was realized, which is 0.5 million b/d below the deficit that OPEC counted. This may be due to the low quality of data for countries with closed data sources and the lack of wide coverage, since the sample captures only the OECD.
With any consideration since 2023, the oil market is globally in short supply, and another question is how large is this deficit?
While the main grand narrative "about expanding the oil surplus due to weak demand against the background of growing supply due to the intensification of OPEC together with Guyana," which was justified by the decline in oil over the past year, is false.
2023: Record oil demand - more than 15 million bpd
2020: Temporary collapse in oil demand to 9.3 million barrels per day amid COVID-19 pandemic
In April 2020, global oil demand fell by a record 9.3 million barrels per day.
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, oil production is growing by inertia, but consumption has collapsed sharply.
2019: Oil demand growth rate slows
According to the International Energy Agency, in the first half of 2019, the growth rate of oil demand fell to 0.5 mbd per year. At the same time, restrictions on oil production agreed by OPEC member countries have not yet contributed to a significant increase in its price. Despite the decline in oil production in Venezuela and Iran, global hydrocarbon production is stable, as production has sharply increased by the United States.
2017: Oil demand growth continues
According to the results of 2017, the demand for oil in the world increased by 1.5 million barrels per day (mbd), and in 2018 - by 1.3 mbd.
2011: Graph of oil consumption dynamics since 1970
OPEC and OPEC +
Main article: OPEC
An organization that unites the largest oil exporters.
Oil powers
2025: Total production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons - 102.5 million barrels per month
The total production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in the world is 102.5 million in January. 25 according to the latest consolidated data in the EIA report.
The statistics include crude oil, condensate from associated gas, liquefied hydrocarbon gases such as ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, pentane, synthetic oil from bituminous sands and shale oil. That is why production in the United States is not 13.5, but over 22 million b/d.
In total, there are 48 countries in the world with the production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons over 100 thousand bpd, forming a total production of 100.8 million bpd or 98.4% of global production.
29 countries with production of over 500 thousand bpd, produce a total of 97 million or 94.6% of world production.
There are only 18 countries in the group of leading countries (production from 1 million bpd), but they form a market share of over 86%.
The 10 largest countries producing oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in January 25:
- USA - 22.35,
- Saudi Arabia - 10.6,
- Russia - 10.45,
- Canada - 6.33,
- China - 5.46,
- Iran - 4.74,
- Iraq - 4.44,
- UAE - 4.15,
- Brazil - 3.9 million bpd, producing a total of 75.1 million bpd or 73.3% of global production.
Over the past year (January 25 to January 24), global production increased by 1.4 million, of which the United States contributed 1.27 million b/d or almost 91%, and by January 19, world production increased by only 2.78 million b/d, where the United States provided an increase of 3.49 million b/d, i.e. all other countries reduced production by 0.7 million b/d.
OPEC in the current composition produces 32.5 million b/d, for the year + 0.4 million b/d, and by January 19 a reduction of 1.3 million b/d.
Who contributes to the growth of global production over the previous 5-6 years? USA - 3.5 million, Canada and Brazil almost 1 million each, China - 0.7 million and Guyana about 0.65 million b/d. Together, 5 countries contributed at 6.7 million over 6 years and + 1.82 million over the year.
Eight OPEC + countries (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Oman) will increase production by 411 thousand b/d from June 2025, accelerating the abolition of voluntary cuts by 2.2 million b/d. This is equivalent to three months of growth according to the original plan.
According to the plan, they want to narrow the gap of 2.2 million by the fall of 2026. There have been numerous attempts to expand quotas over the past three years, but all have failed.
2023: US and Iran increase production in 4 years, Russia and Saudi Arabia cut
Over 4 years, the oil market has transformed into the market of one main buyer - China, which has provided the entire increase in global oil demand since 2019.
But there have also been important changes from the supply side. The main burden of responsibility for stabilizing the balance of supply and demand was assumed by OPEC and the market from a significant surplus 2020-2021 (with the accumulation of record reserves of oil and petroleum products) is moving into a balanced state, because with an increase in demand by 2 million barrels/d, supply increased by only 1.1 million barrels/d from 2019 to 2023.
The most interesting thing in the structure of oil and petroleum products producers.
By 2024, the United States reached an absolute record for oil production - 19.4 million barrels/d and plus 2.2 million barrels/d to the production level of 2019, which means that the rest of the world has reduced production/production by 1.1 million barrels/d in 4 years.
The most significant degradation in African countries, whose production decreased by 1.1 million to 7.2 million barrels/d.
The countries of the Middle East increased production by only 220 thousand to 30.4 million barrels/d, where the entire positive effect falls on Iran, whose production increased by almost 1.2 million to 4.66 million barrels/d - the level of 2018. Production in Saudi Arabia decreased by 443 thousand to 11.4 million barrels/d.
Asian countries reduced production by 0.4 million to 7.3 million barrels/d, but among them China increased production by 350 thousand to 4.2 million barrels/d.
Countries Europe reduced production by 235 thousand to 3.22 million barrels/d.
The CIS countries reduced production by almost 1 million to 13.75 million barrels/d, where Russia minus 0.6 million to 11.1 million barrels/d.
Significant progress in Central and South America with an increase in production of almost 1 million barrels/d, where the main contribution was made by Brazil + 0.6 million, Argentina + 0.35 million and a completely new player in the oil market - Guyana + 0.4 million barrels/d.
Thus, the main beneficiaries of the transformation of the oil market in terms of net production growth: the United States, Iran, Brazil and Guyana.
The main losers: Russia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Britain.
2022: Major oil exporting countries and their supply destinations
2021: USA, Saudi Arabia, Russia
2019: USA, Saudi Arabia, Russia
Russia ranked third in terms of its share in the world oil market in 2019, maintaining the indicator unchanged compared to 2018 - at 12.1%, follows from the annual statistical review of the British company BP (Statistical Review of World Energy 2020).
According to the report, oil and condensate production in the Russian Federation in 2019 increased by 0.9%, to 11.54 million barrels per day.
At the same time, the largest share in the world market in 2019 was occupied by the United States, increasing this figure over the year by 1.7 percentage points, to 17.9%. Oil and condensate production in this country in 2019 jumped immediately by 11%, to 17.05 million barrels per day.
In turn, Saudi Arabia, although it remained in second place, lost its positions. The kingdom's market share decreased by 0.6 percentage points, to 12.4%, and production - by 3.5%, to 11.83 million.
2018
2017: Oil Production Dynamics by Region of the World
2012: There are 26 oil powers in the world
As of 2012, there are 26 "oil" powers in the world. Citi Group includes countries whose share of hydrocarbons in net exports is above 10% of GDP. In fact, most countries on the list have this figure above 20% of GDP.
Seeing these countries as attractive investment targets, the Citi Group notes that few of these countries have liquid enough financial markets to invest in them quickly and relatively safely. The leaders in the group of "oil favorites" are Russia, Saudi Arabia and Norway. The daily volume of trading in the markets of these countries exceeds $500 million.
In the first 10 years of the 2000s, the world experienced the most significant transit of wealth: the money of countries with developed markets gradually flowed to countries exporting oil. In the 2000s, they received even more funds than Arab countries during the oil boom of the 70s of the last century.
Global Oil Production
U.S. oil production
Main Article: U.S. Oil Production
Oil production and export in Russia
Oil production in CIS countries
2024: All countries except Belarus have reduced oil production
According to the analytical company Infoline, published in April 2025, in 2024, oil production in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan decreased by 1.2% and amounted to about 128.5 million tons.
TAdviser studied official statistics on oil production in different CIS countries and prepared an infographic. Thus, in Russia, oil production in 2024 decreased by 2.8% compared to 2023 - to 516 million tons. In Kazakhstan, the figure decreased by 2.7% (to 87.56 million tons).
Among the oil-producing CIS countries, only Belarus will be able to increase its production in 2024 - by 3.2%. In other states, there was a decline, and the largest production decreased in Tajikistan - by 10%, to 16.1 thousand tons.
According to Infoline analysts, an increase in the number of companies producing hydrocarbons with Chinese participation is recorded in the Central Asian region and especially in Kazakhstan. In particular, in November 2024, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced the results of the tenth electronic auction for the provision of subsoil use rights for hydrocarbons. Six fields were put up for auction, five of them went to companies with Chinese participation.
UAE oil production
The UAE is accelerating a plan to boost its oil production capacity by trying to profit from its crude reserves before the energy transition begins, sources said in September 2022.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which pumps nearly all of the UAE's oil, wants to be able to produce 5 million barrels a day by 2025. This is earlier than the previously announced goal of 2030.
Oil production in Venezuela
Main article: Oil production in Venezuela
Nigeria oil production
Main article: Oil production in Nigeria
Saudi oil production
Main article: Oil and gas production in Saudi Arabia
Oil production in Iran
Oil production, import and export in Europe
Oil production in Turkey
Main article: Oil and gas production in Turkey
The largest companies in the oil and gas market
Oil and Gas Drilling Rigs
2023: 3.1% reduction in global oil and gas rigs to 1,739
By the end of 2023, the number of operating oil and gas drilling rigs on a global scale decreased by 55, or 3.1%, to 1,739 units. This is evidenced by the data of the American oil and gas service company Baker Hughes, released in early January 2024.
During 2023, in general, the number of operating drilling rigs in the world decreased by 95 complexes, or 5.2%. According to published figures, in the United States, the figure at the end of 2023 increased by four units - to 623 installations, while in Canada their number decreased by 36 - to 161 units. The number of rigs in Europe increased by four to 122. In the Middle East, the figure decreased by 11 - to 336 complexes. In the Asia-Pacific region, the value decreased by four - to 214, in Africa - by 11, to 109. In Latin America, the number of installations decreased by one - to 174.
At the same time, in January 2024, the number of operating oil and gas drilling rigs in the world increased - primarily thanks to Canada. The number of such complexes reached 1784. In Canada, their number increased by 37 - to 198, which is the maximum since February 2023. At the same time, in the United States, the number of installations in January 2024 decreased by 2 compared to the previous month and amounted to 621.
The number of drilling complexes in the Middle East during January 2024 increased by 12 - to 348, which is the maximum value since May 2020. In Africa, an increase of 2 units was recorded - up to 111. At the same time, in Latin America, the indicator decreased by 4 - to 170 complexes. In Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the number of installations remained unchanged at 122 and 214, respectively.
The average monthly number of operating oil and gas drilling rigs in the world in 2023, according to Interfax, increased for the third year in a row. The figure rose to 1814, up from 1,747 in 2022.[2]
Reference Oil Mixtures
American WTI
The abbreviation WTI hides the full name of the oil mixture - West Texas Intermediate. It received its name from the place of production - the American state of Texas.
A distinctive feature of the WTI brand is its "lightness" and low sulfur content. According to the methodology of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the density of WTI is 39.6 degrees (the larger the degree, the smaller the density), which makes it lighter than water, which is taken as the reference point.
WTI became known in the American market in the early 1980s - after the liberalization of energy legislation. According to Energy and Capital, a consulting firm, up to 30 percent of oil in the United States in the early 1980s belonged to WTI, whose advantages include high quality and the relative low cost of delivering[3] consumers].
North Sea Brent
The Brent brand arose after the start of development of the large field of the same name in the North Sea, and a little later they began to call all the oil coming from Northern Europe. API estimates the density of the European oil mixture at 38. This is slightly worse than WTI, but Brent also loses in terms of sulfur content, the level of which reaches 0.4 percent compared to 0.2-0.3 percent of the American competitor.
It was Brent and WTI that was destined to become the most popular oil mixtures. This is also due to the history of global commodity trade, which developed mainly USA in and. To Europe American traders focused on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and they were more comfortable trading local oil. On the London contrary, stock exchanges from all over Europe settled, as a result of which the London Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) became the center of Brent sales.
Quality of mixtures in oil refining
Density ("gravity") and "sulfur content" determine the future fate of oil. The lighter the liquid hydrocarbon feedstock and the less sulfur in it, the better it is suitable for the production of gasoline and kerosene, which increases its cost. Thus, in ideal conditions, WTI should cost a little more than Brent, but in the late 2000s, traders completely stopped paying attention to the quality of oil.
Oil price dynamics
Main article: Oil prices
Oil trade routes
Strait of Hormuz
Main article: Strait of Hormuz
Oil tankers
Oil leaks
Over 30 years, 66 major oil and petroleum product leaks have occurred in the world with a total spill of 3427 thousand tons. TOP-3 cases:
1) Spill of Iraqi oil reserves during the Gulf War (820 thousand);
2) Fire at Deepwater Horizon (627,000);
3) Spill at the fields of Uzbekistan (285 thousand).
In Russia, 9 such cases were reported, the largest - an accident on the pipeline in Rep. Komi in 1994, when, according to various estimates, from 100 to 220 thousand tons of oil got into the soil as a result of several breakthroughs.
Theories of Oil Formation
Biogenic theory
Biogenic theory prevails among specialists in the world. It states that oil and natural gas were formed from the remains of plant and animal organisms in a multi-stage, millions of years-long process. According to this theory, one of the founders of which was Mikhaylo Lomonosov, oil reserves are irreplaceable and all its deposits will someday run out. Irreplaceable, of course, given the transience of human civilizations: the first alphabet and nuclear energy separate no more than four thousand years, while millions will be required to form new oil from the current organic remains. This means that our not too distant descendants will have to do without oil, and then without gas...[4]
In 1888, German scientists Gefer and Engler put experiments that proved the possibility of obtaining oil from animal products. When distilling fish oil at a temperature of 400 ° C and a pressure of about 1 MPa, they isolated extreme hydrocarbons, paraffin and lubricating oils from it. Later, in 1919, Academician Zelinsky from organic sludge from the bottom of Lake Balkhash, mainly of plant origin, received raw resin, coke and gases - methane, CO, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide during distillation. Then he extracted gasoline, kerosene and heavy oils from the resin, having experimentally proved that oil can be obtained from organic of vegetable origin.
Abiogenic theory
Proponents of abiogenic theory are optimistic about the future. They believe that we will have enough oil and gas reserves for many more centuries. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, while in Baku, once learned from the geologist German Abikh that oil deposits are geographically very often confined to discharges - a special type of fracture of the earth's crust. At the same time, the famous Russian chemist was convinced that hydrocarbons (oil and gas) are formed from inorganic compounds deep underground. Mendeleev believed that during mountain-building processes on the cracks that cut the earth's crust, surface water seeps into the depths of the Earth to metal masses and reacts with iron carbides, forming metal oxides and hydrocarbons. Then hydrocarbons rise through cracks into the upper layers of the earth's crust and form oil and gas deposits. According to abiogenic theory, the formation of new oil will not have to wait millions of years at all, it is a completely replenished resource. Supporters of the abiogenic theory are confident that new fields are waiting at great depths, and the oil reserves explored at the moment may well be insignificant compared to those still unknown.
Spectroscopic studies have shown that in the atmosphere of Jupiter and other giant planets, as well as their satellites and in the gas shells of comets, the simplest hydrocarbons are present. This means that if in nature there are processes for the synthesis of organic substances from inorganic, nothing prevents the formation of hydrocarbons from carbides on Earth. Soon other facts were discovered that did not agree with classical biogenic theory. In a number of oil wells, oil reserves unexpectedly began to recover.
One of the first such paradoxes was discovered in an oil field in the Tersko-Sunzhensky district, near Grozny. The first wells here were drilled back in 1893, in places of natural oil shows.
In 1895, one of the wells from a depth of 140 m gave a grandiose oil fountain. After 12 days of flowing, the walls of the oil barn collapsed and the flow of oil flooded the towers of nearby wells. Only three years later, the fountain was tamed, then it dried up and the pumping station was transferred from the fountain method of oil production.
By the beginning of World War II, all wells were heavily flooded, and some of them were mothballed. After the onset of peace, production was restored, and, to everyone's surprise, almost all high-water wells began to produce anhydrous oil! In an incomprehensible way, the wells received a "second wind." After another half century, the situation repeated itself. By the beginning of the Chechen wars, the wells were again heavily flooded, their production rates decreased significantly, and during the wars they were not operated. When production was resumed, production rates increased significantly. Moreover, the first small wells began to pump oil back to the earth's surface through the annulus. Proponents of the biogenic theory were perplexed, while "inorganic" easily explained this paradox by the fact that in this place oil is of inorganic origin.
Something similar has happened at one of the world's largest Romashkin oil field, which has been in development for more than 60 years. According to Tatar geologists, 710 million tons of oil could be extracted from the wells of the field. However, to date, almost 3 billion tons of oil have already been produced here! The classical laws of oil and gas geology cannot explain the observed facts. Some wells seemed to pulsate: the drop in production rates suddenly gave way to their long-term growth. Pulsating rhythm was noted in many other wells in the territory of the former USSR.
It is impossible not to mention the field "White Tiger" on the sea shelf of Vietnam. From the very beginning of oil production, "black gold" was extracted exclusively from sedimentary strata, here the sedimentary strata (about 3 km) were drilled through, entered the foundation of the earth's crust, and the well fontanated. Moreover, according to the geologists' estimate, about 120 million tons could be extracted from the well, but even after this volume was produced, oil continued to come from the bowels with good pressure. The field raised a new question for geologists: does oil accumulate only in sedimentary rocks or can the basement rocks be its reservoir? If there is also oil in the foundation, then the world's oil and gas reserves may be much larger than we expect.
{{quote 'What is the reason for the "second breath" of many wells, inexplicable from the point of view of the classical geology of oil and gas? "In the Tersko-Sunzhensky field and some others, oil can be formed from organic matter, but not in millions of years, as provided for by classical geology, but in a matter of years," said Viktor Gavrilov, head of the Department of Geology of the Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after I.M. Gubkina. - The process of its formation can be compared with artificial distillation of organic matter, similar to the experiments of Hefer and Zelinsky, but carried out by nature itself. This rate of oil formation became possible due to the geological features of the area, where, together with the lower part of the lithosphere, part of the precipitation is drawn into the upper mantle of the Earth. There, under conditions of high temperatures and pressures, rapid processes of destruction of organic matter and the synthesis of new hydrocarbon molecules occur[5]
According to Professor Gavrilov, another mechanism operates at the Romashkinskoye field. Here, in the thickness of crystalline rocks of the earth's crust, in the foundation, there is a powerful layer of high-alumina gneiss more than 3 billion years old. These ancient rocks contain a lot (up to 15%) of graphite, from which hydrocarbons are formed under high temperatures in the presence of hydrogen. Faults and fractures raise them into the porous sedimentary layer of the crust.}}
See also
Notes
- ↑ OPEC ASB: Global oil production growth continues ahead of proven reserves growth in 2023
- ↑ The number of oil and gas drilling in the world in January increased at the expense of Canada
- ↑ [http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/07/30/oil/ oil to
- ↑ Oil is alive and dead: where does black gold come from
- ↑ " Oil is alive and dead: where does black gold come from
| The site content is translated by machine translation software powered by PROMT. The machine-translated articles are not always perfect and may contain errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. Read original article If you find inaccuracies or errors in the results of machine translation, please write to editor@tadviser.ru. We will make every effort to correct them as soon as possible. |