Are we running out of oil? (Credit: Flickr @ Olle Svensson http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollesvensson/)With all the statistical information that has been published lately, we’ve decided to make a brief review of statistical data on world oil reserves and production. Are we already running out of oil? How much oil is being produced per year? In our article we gathered some of the latest data regarding world oil reserves and presented it in a form of charts.
World oil reserves by region
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World oil reserves by region, 1995-2012 (Source: World Oil and Gas Review by Eni)
According to this chart, known world oil reserves are, generally, growing in all regions except for North America and Europe. This does not mean, of course, that we wouldn’t eventually run out of oil, but it is not happening yet.
st, 2012 (Source: st, 2012 (Source: World Oil and Gas Review by Eni)" class="wp-image-22839 " />The world’s top 10 oil reserves holders, as of December 31st, 2012 (Source: World Oil and Gas Review by Eni)
This chart shows the world’s top ten oil reserves holders: Venezuela (known oil reserves estimated at 297,570 million barrels), Saudi Arabia (267,910 million barrels), Canada (173,105), Iran (154,580), Iraq (141,350), Kuwait (104,000), United Arab Emirates (97,800), Russia (80,000), Libya (48,010) and Nigeria (37,200). According to the same source, oil reserves in the rest of the world can be estimated at 249,057 million barrels.
World oil production by region
An average of 86,895 thousand barrels of oil per day has been produced in 2012, that is 2.9% more than in 2011 and 4.7% more than in 2000, despite the declining share of oil in world total primary energy supply (46% in 1973, approximately 31,5% in 2011).
According to Eni, a list of world’s top ten oil producers (the figures include crude oil, non conventional oil and natural gas liquids) as of December 31st, 2012, included Saudi Arabia (11,584 thousand barrels per day), Russia (10,734), the United States (9,149), China (4,175), Canada (3,770), Iran (3,541), the United Arab Emirates (3,539), Iraq (3,031), Kuwait (2,959) and Mexico (2,920).
The 2013 edition of the Key World Energy Statistics—the International Energy Agency’s summary of key energy data—has slightly different figures for world oil production in 2012. According to this source, Mexico never made top 10, being replaced by Venezuela.
