If you were wondering why Trump is attempting a coup in Venezuela, look no further.
Map: The Countries With the Most Oil Reserves
There’s little doubt that renewable energy sources will play a strategic role in powering the global economy of the future.
But for now, crude oil is still the undisputed heavyweight champion of the energy world.
In 2018, we consumed more oil than any prior year in history – about 99.3 million barrels per day on a global basis. This number is projected to rise again in 2019 to 100.8 million barrels per day.
The Most Oil Reserves by Country
Given that oil will continue to be dominant in the energy mix for the short and medium term, which countries hold the most oil reserves?
Today’s map comes from HowMuch.net and it uses data from the CIA World Factbook to resize countries based on the amount of oil reserves they hold.
Here’s the data for the top 15 countries below:
| Rank | Country | Oil Reserves (Barrels) |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | ?? Venezuela | 300.9 billion |
| #2 | ?? Saudi Arabia | 266.5 billion |
| #3 | ?? Canada | 169.7 billion |
| #4 | ?? Iran | 158.4 billion |
| #5 | ?? Iraq | 142.5 billion |
| #6 | ?? Kuwait | 101.5 billion |
| #7 | ?? United Arab Emirates | 97.8 billion |
| #8 | ?? Russia | 80.0 billion |
| #9 | ?? Libya | 48.4 billion |
| #10 | ?? Nigeria | 37.1 billion |
| #11 | ?? United States | 36.5 billion |
| #12 | ?? Kazakhstan | 30.0 billion |
| #13 | ?? China | 25.6 billion |
| #14 | ?? Qatar | 25.2 billion |
| #15 | ?? Brazil | 12.7 billion |
Venezuela tops the list with 300.9 billion barrels of oil in reserve – but even this vast wealth in natural resources has not been enough to save the country from its recent economic and humanitarian crisis.
Saudi Arabia, a country known for its oil dominance, takes the #2 spot with 266.5 billion barrels of oil. Meanwhile, Canada and the U.S. are found at the #3 (169.7 billion bbls) and the #11 (36.5 billion bbls) spots respectively.
The Cost of Production
While having an endowment of billions of barrels of oil within your borders can be a strategic gift from mother nature, it’s worth mentioning that reserves are just one factor in assessing the potential value of this crucial resource.
In Saudi Arabia, for example, the production cost of oil is roughly $3.00 per barrel, which makes black gold strategic to produce at almost any possible price.
Other countries are not so lucky:
| Country | Production cost (bbl) | Total cost (bbl)* |
|---|---|---|
| ?? United Kingdom | $17.36 | $44.33 |
| ?? Brazil | $9.45 | $34.99 |
| ?? Nigeria | $8.81 | $28.99 |
| ?? Venezuela | $7.94 | $27.62 |
| ?? Canada | $11.56 | $26.64 |
| ?? U.S. shale | $5.85 | $23.35 |
| ?? Norway | $4.24 | $21.31 |
| ?? U.S. non-shale | $5.15 | $20.99 |
| ?? Indonesia | $6.87 | $19.71 |
| ?? Russia | $2.98 | $19.21 |
| ?? Iraq | $2.16 | $10.57 |
| ?? Iran | $1.94 | $9.09 |
| ?? Saudi Arabia | $3.00 | $8.98 |
*Total cost (bbl) includes production cost (also shown), capital spending, gross taxes, and admin/transport costs.Even if a country is blessed with some of the most oil reserves in the world, it may not be able to produce and sell that oil to maximize the potential benefit.
Countries like Canada and Venezuela are hindered by geology – in these places, the majority of oil is extra heavy crude or bitumen (oil sands), and these types of oil are simply more difficult and costly to extract.
In other places, obstacles are are self-imposed. In some countries, like Brazil and the U.S., there are higher taxes on oil production, which raises the total cost per barrel.
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Proven reserves (an SEC term, which requires a pipeline connection or similar for marketing) is quite different from Resource, in which Russia is far ahead of everyone…and Venezuela’s very heavy oil requires special refinery runs….Nevertheless, those reserves show why Russia and China will never allow a US takeover…
If you include Vitalis it’s hands down East Los Angeles.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/potentially-game-changing-oil-reserves-discovered-in-israel
Can’t find any actual numbers, though.
Once you read a few paragraphs you discover the Israelis are pumping the oil out of the SYRIAN Golan.
Oh, I know that. The question is ‘how much oil is there?’
They likely have a good idea of how much is there by now, and what the geographic extent of the fields are – but there isn’t much information in the public domain, which is interesting.
Trump deciding that the Golan Heights is now part of Israel suggests there is a lot of oil, but I don’t have any actual numbers to look at. The relatively new Chinese interest in the area is also suggestive, an interest which coincides with the oil discoveries.
The truth is we have no idea how many reserves are in OPEC nations. In the 1980’s they all adjusted their reserves #’s because it meant they could pump more and therefore make more $$$. It’s not like they discovered any new fields, it was an adjustment by stroke of a pen. So in the Middle East especially I have serious doubts they have the states reserves at least in conventional oil. Canada and Venezuela do have tons of reserves but the amount recoverable is likely less than what the USA will extract as shale oil. To state that Trump wants to intervene down there because of oil is even more idiotic than the claim Bush was in Iraq for oil. The latter I’ve always thought was a vendetta to “finish the job for dad” with the false assumption oil wealth could pay us back for the job.
Canada + USA = 207 Billion ………. 3rd most in the world.
I really don’t understand why we just don’t fucken invade them …. tomorrow. Really. With that pussy boi minister and his faggoty mounted copfuks — we could take them over in 4 hours.
You KNOW it’s gonna happen. Someday. It’s just the way the USA!USA!USA! rolls. We should just get it over with. Not only do we need their oil but we need their 40 million people to prop up Social Security for another decade (or, until I croak). Do they even have 40 million peeps?
YES!!! Stucky , that is brilliant. We will invade and drive the Canucks out, then we will control their oil and move all of our kneegrows and welfare queens into our new Canadiamerica Territory . It will be easy peasy, we won’t even bust a sweat.
Thank you for noticing my extraordinary reasoning abilities.
Yet, I got two down votes. Probably from RiNS and Francis Marion. Shame …. I was gonna offer them $5,000,000 each in reparations.
Take us over in 4 hours. Don’t make me laugh. It would take at least 6 hours, maybe 7. So there!
Aw hell, I musta been typing mine while you was posting yours….
Stucky 2020 !!
It is indeed brilliant-bolton would say it is good for business; what a genius he is.
Add in the Arctic at 90bn too. That puts the Arctic as a whole at 7th on the list. Though not a country and many people claiming their bit of it.
The US number is low. It is closer to 50 billion barrels. BUT, we consume ( burn up, destroy ) 5 billion barrels a year. at our current rate of pumping, most of the reserves will be gone in 10 years. I hope your kids have a bicycle.
Try 20 billion a year
20 million barrels per day times 365 days = 7.3 billion barrels per year… Chip
Maybe I am missing the point of the war-for-oil . . . er . . . theology that seems to drive the godless neocons (rightest, leftist, libertarianist) who approach foreign-policy (and life, I suppose) like a herd of vampires; it is acceptable to EXTRACT, apparently by whatever means necessary, the “min’rals” from every country that is too small/distant to mount a prohibitive defense . . . so we are in Libya and Iraq already, got a big toe in Syria (whose reserves are small but “hey! pipeline!”*), have been positioning ourselves against Iran for years, and, hell, it ain’t like we didn’t already overthrow them once,
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days
BUT now we have a “hankering” for . . . Venezuela. And here’s where the blood-suckers lose me: Iran and Syria are allies
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/irans-presence-in-syria-is-not-negotiableal-assad-1.2236861
who are both aligned with Russia. And Venezuela is aligned with Russia and China,
so . . . the US, led by the vampire-class, refuse to mind our own business AND continue to poke and prod the Russky bear in the process? I mean, we can’t even “win” in Afghanistan. Or Iraq . . . or, hell, Syria, either, and YET, the vampires seem hell-bent to square off with Russia? And China? Doesn’t make sense to me, unless that end (certain death for the US) is their goal, and Iran/Syria/Venezuela are just the means.
And, if we just want to beat up some folks and steal their resources, it seems like the BEST place to invade would be Canada. Hell, they got a LOT of oil, a tenth of our population, strict-ish gun control laws, and the best canola fields in the world. Of course, canola ain’t poppy. I get that, but, I mean, why go around the world when you can go up the street? We kick their doors in, smack ’em around a little, lock-down their oil fields, and it ain’t like anybody’s gonna come to their rescue, cuz the rest of the world HATES the canucks AND their stupid hockey. The ONLY reason the US does not fall into the gulf of Mexico is because Canada sucks, and everybody knows it. So, if this is how our foreign policy has got to be, then it’s da*n time our vampires re-align their priorities. CANADA: ATTACK NOW! EH!
*
*https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-24/oil-gas-war-over-syria-4-maps
I don’t have any numbers but it seems that if we (the USA,USA,USA,) would change our military from an offensive one to a strictly a defensive (home land only, no going abroad seeking dragons to destroy) we could solve the energy problem and possibly initiate world peace.
https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
You may be on to something
Oz has little in the way of oil. But boy howdy do we have coal and natural gas. If any nation should be looking to electric vehicles, it is Oz, as we can generate electricity for a gazillion years from the coal we have. Or lpg powered vehicles.
Screw the greenies. Burn that fuel, baby. Nothing Oz does will be a piss in the ocean with respect to what is going on in India, China, and Africa.
Llpoh- Notice TPTB don’t say shit about the horrific pollution spewed out daily by China and India. I think the whole anti-coal lobby is BS. We can’t possibly produce enough electricity without coal and I’m betting that is also true in OZ.
That’s why I laughed out loud when I read this from the article… “There’s little doubt that renewable energy sources will play a strategic role in powering the global economy of the future.”
They will not play a “strategic” role. “Renewables”, which are not by any means renewable, will continue to be a fringe sector for energy production for decades, perhaps centuries. Nothing can match the energy density of oil, nat gas, and coal. EROEI tells everything you need to know. No one is talking (or computing) EROEI when they talk about wind and solar… Chip
One thing I have never understood is how we “SUPPOSEDLY” have the engineering expertise to send men to the moon and back but we can’t figure out how to make coal clean burning. Could it be that it would cut into the oil company profits too much? Also by default reduce the need for the MIC to intervene in world affairs.
While I do not know how “clean” it is, and since I just heard about this a few weeks ago, I am still compiling sources, BUT, during WWII, Germany powered their military machinery with fuels derived from coal:
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/03/archives/germans-gassing-up-with-coal-extraction-formulas-from-1940s-are.html
Even the MSM is having to report on industrial hemp now the ban’s been lifted. Not that it will make a lot of difference in the short term because the infrastructure isn’t in place, but longer term it may well help to reduce dependency on oil. At least you have the land in the US. We don’t in the U.K.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellistalton/2019/04/04/industrial-hemp-is-the-answer-to-petrochemical-dependency/#3c6bffb272d8
The paper mill and textile industries has been the primary forces keeping hemp illegal. Hemp is a true “renewable” resource that has literally hundreds if not thousands of uses. Can be used to make paper, rope, textiles, clothes, cardboard, you name it. And grows a lot faster than trees… Chip
Neibo proves himself to be a stupid cunt by stating everyone hates the Canucks.
Baha, travelled around much to actually hear what is thought of Americans?
No, actually, I proves myself a stupid cunt because I say everybody hates Canucks AND hockey . . . which is obviously patently false OR blatant sarcasm. And of course, the whole “All hail our vampire leaders” schtick is a little over-the-top, but thanks for giving me the opportunity to clear that up for you.