UAE oil reserves. Proven oil reserves in countries around the world. How reliable are the world's proven reserves?
Vladimir Khomutko
Reading time: 5 minutes
A A
Volume of oil production of leading countries
Countries of the world that are rich in oil and have significant reserves of this mineral have a strong influence on the world economy, since producers of petroleum products around the world depend on regular supplies of hydrocarbon raw materials, without which the existence of a modern economy is impossible. Global oil refining and chemical production consume truly colossal volumes of raw materials, and therefore the world’s gas volume is colossal.
The production of oil and natural gas for their subsequent export in many countries of the world brings the lion's share of budget revenues, and therefore the oil and gas sector is the leading sector of their economies.
In one day, about one hundred million barrels of “black gold” are produced in the world. The top three largest oil powers are the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America. It is these three countries that supply 30 percent of all traded oil.
Volume of oil production by country of the world
What other countries in the world are engaged in such production, and what volume of oil do they supply to the market? Below we will look at the leading countries in oil production, starting from tenth place and up to the top three.
10th place. Venezuela
The daily volume of oil production in this country is 2.5 million barrels, which allows it to open the world TOP-10 in this area.
The Venezuelan economy is heavily dependent on hydrocarbon sales. Suffice it to say that 96% of exports come from this mineral. Venezuelan raw materials account for 3.65% of the total volume of oil supplied to the market. But if we talk about the reserves of this energy resource, then Venezuela is in first place in the world. According to experts, their level is about 46 billion tons.
9th place. United Arab Emirates
The UAE, which produces 2.7 million barrels per day, rightfully occupies this place of honor. The share of hydrocarbon raw materials supplied to the world markets is 3.81%.
The main deposits are located in the emirate of Abu Dhabi (approximately 95%), the remaining 5% are located in the emirates of Sharjah and Dubai. The total amount of natural reserves in the UAE is estimated at 13 billion tons. The main importers of this mineral from the UAE are India, Thailand, Japan, Korea, China and Singapore.
8th. Kuwait
Daily production level of 2.8 million barrels.
bring Kuwait to eighth place in the TOP 10 largest producers. Unused liquid natural hydrocarbons in Kuwait account for 9% of the world's total and are estimated by experts at 14 billion tons of “black gold”.
Kuwait holds a 3.90% share of the oil market.
Kuwait's largest field is Greater Burgan, which accounts for half of all extracted raw materials. Another 50% comes from Kuwaiti fields such as Umm Gudair and Minagish, located in the south of Kuwait, and Sabriyah and Raudhaiten, located in the northern part of Kuwait. Kuwait's main exports are to Morocco, Jordan, Syria, China and the UAE.
7th. Iraq
The daily volume of oil produced in Iraq is 3 million barrels, which allows it to occupy a prominent place among the main producers of this raw material in the world.
Despite the difficult political situation, Iraq is gradually increasing the production of this raw material, since its economy is heavily dependent on its exports. The revenue side of the Iraqi budget consists of 90% of revenues from oil exports.
In the world, Iraqi hydrocarbons account for approximately 4.24%.
The total reserve of unused resources is 20 billion tons.
6th place. Iran
It supplies over three million barrels daily.
This Middle Eastern country is a major oil power with huge reserves of this useful energy resource. The bulk of hydrocarbons here are extracted from fields located in the Persian Gulf basin. According to experts, the already discovered Iranian deposits will last for almost ninety years, since their level is estimated at 21 billion tons. This is the third indicator in the world.
Iran's percentage in the market for this energy resource is 4.25%.
The main importers are Japan, China, India, South Korea and Türkiye. Half of Iran's export revenues consist of proceeds from the sale of “black gold.”
5th place. Canada
It also supplies more than three million barrels per day.
Canada opens the top five exporters of this product. The largest deposit of this mineral in Canada is located in the province of Alberta. Recently, Canada has become the largest supplier of hydrocarbons to its neighbors, the United States. More than 90% of Canadian crude hydrocarbons are exported here.
Canada holds 4.54% of the oil market.
It has enormous reserves of this mineral, which are estimated at approximately 28 billion tons. According to this indicator, Canada is among the top three in the world.
4th. China
The daily volume of oil, equal to 4 million barrels, rightfully puts the People's Republic of China in fourth place in the oil production ranking.
Chinese “black gold” in the world is 5.71%.
The population of the PRC is huge, so China is not only one of the leading exporters, but also one of the leaders in consumption of this energy resource. The amount of explored Chinese hydrocarbons is relatively small - 2.5 billion tons. One of the main exporters of “black gold” for China is Russia.
Third place - United States of America
Opens the “big three” main producers of this product in the United States - 9 million barrels. daily, 11.80% of global production.
The United States is not only a leading exporter, but also the world's largest importer of hydrocarbons and petroleum products. The main deposits are concentrated in three American states - Texas, Alaska and California. In case of all sorts of unforeseen circumstances, the United States maintains the world's largest strategic reserve of already produced hydrocarbons.
Second place. Saudi Arabia
10 million barrels is the daily volume of oil produced in this country.
Saudi Arabia has long been rightfully among the leaders in the production of hydrocarbons, on which its entire economy rests. The main export regions are the USA and East Asia. The share of export revenues received from the sale of hydrocarbons in the total amount of such revenues in this state is approximately 90 percent. All fields in Saudi Arabia are developed by the national company Saudi Aramco.
Liquid hydrocarbons supplied from Saudi Arabia on the global market are 13.23%.
Explored resources are estimated at 36.7 billion tons.
And finally, the leader of the rating is Russia
Daily production is more than 10 million barrels.
Confident first place. Russia has long been considered one of the richest in the world, not only in terms of the amount of “black gold”, but also a real storehouse of other types of minerals - coal, non-ferrous metals, natural gas and so on. The total volume of explored Russian hydrocarbons is more than 14 billion tons.
The percentage of the Russian Federation in the total amount of mined “black gold” is 13.92 percent.
Trends for 2017
A sharp drop in oil prices, which was provoked by a sharp increase in production
Units
In Russia, the amount of oil is usually measured in mass units - tons. In international practice, non-systemic units of volume are used for the same purpose - American oil barrels (1 barrel is equal to approximately 159 liters). This happened because for a very long time international oil production was carried out almost exclusively by companies from the USA and Great Britain, that is, countries in which non-systemic units of measurement are still used very widely. The density of oil varies quite widely - from 0.7 to 1.0 tons per cubic meter. For this reason, there is no one-to-one correspondence between tons and barrels. On average, one ton of oil contains approximately 7-8 barrels. The spread is not so great, because the conversion from tons to barrels and vice versa is usually relevant for more or less large companies that develop quite a lot of fields with oils of varying densities.
Conversion factors between tons and barrels are different for each company. The specific values of these coefficients have a fairly significant impact on the reported volumes of reserves and production of companies and, as a consequence, on their capitalization. Therefore, any reason and any opportunity to set a more favorable value for the conversion factor will certainly be used, in contrast to reasons for revising it in the opposite direction.
World oil reserves and reserve ratio
According to the latest statistical review of world energy from BP, proven global oil reserves amounted to 240 billion tons at the end of 2014. This value includes both traditional and non-traditional reserves. The difference between them mainly lies in the cost of production: for unconventional reserves it is usually an order of magnitude higher due to the need to use extremely expensive technologies. In this regard, unconventional reserves are characterized by a strong dependence of the feasibility of development on the current oil price. For oil companies, these are, in general, second-class reserves; They begin to be developed when traditional reserves in a given oil and gas basin are already severely depleted. Currently, two types of unconventional reserves are being developed on a large scale: heavy oils and oil from low-permeability reservoirs. The latter is also often called shale oil, but this creates confusion with another type of unconventional reserve that is not widely exploited; therefore we will use the first name.
In the same year, 2014, 4.2 billion tons of oil were produced worldwide. Dividing the world's proven reserves by annual production, we obtain an indicator called the reserves ratio; on a global scale it is equal to 57 years. Today's proven oil reserves would suffice for that number of years while maintaining current production levels; however, it is obvious that neither reserves nor production will actually remain at today's levels. Therefore, the absolute value of the reserve ratio should not be taken seriously: the practical significance is mainly the ratio of the oil reserve ratio between regions/countries or in different periods of time.
Proven oil reserves in the world are extremely unevenly distributed (see Figure 1). Thus, the oil and gas basin of the Persian Gulf, with a relatively small area, contains 46% of all proven world reserves. The majority (about 96%) here comes from the following countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE. It should be noted that the next two most important areas (the Orinoco Belt and the Canadian oil sands) contain reserves of unconventional, heavy oil. In addition to these two areas, significant proven unconventional (both heavy and low-permeability) reserves are available in the USA, Russia, China and some other countries. If we consider only traditional, easily accessible oil, the share of the Persian Gulf basin in the world's proven reserves will be about two-thirds. Basically, it is this circumstance that explains the global political significance of this region.
Figure 1. Distribution of proven oil reserves in the world (billion tons).
The Orinoco heavy oil belt, named after the Orinoco River, contains 15% of the world's proven reserves and is located almost entirely in Venezuela. Thanks to this, today Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves. The viscosity of oils from the Orinoco Belt is several orders of magnitude higher than that of traditional oil; Development here requires the use of tertiary development methods, in particular a relatively new thermal method called steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Horizontal wells are drilled through the oil reservoir in pairs, one several meters higher than the other. Hot steam is pumped into the upper well; the viscosity of the heated oil decreases significantly, and it flows under its own weight into the lower well. The cost of oil production in this way is very high, but without the use of this technology, oil production in this area is, for the most part, completely impossible.
Canadian oil sands contain 11% of the world's proven reserves and are broadly similar to the Orinoco Belt. Until relatively recently, oil was extracted here almost exclusively by open-pit mining. Currently, SAGD technology is being increasingly used. At the same time, out of 27.2 billion tons of reserves, only 4.1 are in active development.
All other regions of the world contain about 28% of proven oil reserves, including in the Russian Federation - about 6%, in Libya, the USA, Nigeria and Kazakhstan - 1.5-2.5% each. All other countries account for about 13%, with each individual country accounting for no more than 1%.
Figure 2 compares the stock ratio between some countries and regions of the world. The undisputed champions here are Venezuela and Canada, due to their huge reserves of heavy oil, most of which are currently not exploited. The reserve ratio is very high in the countries of the Persian Gulf, and the same was in pre-war Libya. In Russia, the reserve ratio is low by world standards - only 26 years. Reserves are exploited even more intensively in the United States.
Figure 2. Multiplicity of proven reserves for some countries and regions of the world (in years).
For traditional oil, the ratio of proven reserves speaks most of all about the possibilities of maintaining or increasing production levels - the higher the ratio of reserves, the less intensively the fields are exploited, and, therefore, the slower the natural decline in production. Therefore, for example, the countries of the Persian Gulf, if necessary, can significantly increase oil production volumes in a short time at low cost, but the Russian Federation cannot handle such a trick. However, in relation to countries with a significant share of unconventional reserves (that is, Venezuela, Canada and the USA), due to the use of specific production technologies, this rule does not always work.
The backbone of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) consists of countries not only with large reserves and large production volumes, but also with a high reserve ratio (Persian Gulf countries, Venezuela, Nigeria, Libya). This circumstance allows them, at least in theory, to regulate the level of production, reducing or increasing it as necessary to influence the oil market. In practice, they succeeded by and large only in the 70s and 80s of the last century.
How reliable are the world's proven reserves?
As mentioned in the previous part of the article, some countries do not disclose detailed geological information about their oil reserves. This primarily applies to many OPEC member countries. At the same time, historically in these countries, oil reserves have repeatedly increased abruptly - some examples are shown in Figure 3. In most cases, no one outside the relevant organizations of these countries knows why this happened. Particularly indicative is the case of Kuwait, whose area is two and a half times smaller than the area of the Moscow region. Oil exploration and production in Kuwait has been carried out since the 1940s; in 40 years, the depths of this small country could be explored far and wide and all available reserves could be calculated. However, in 1984, Kuwait increased its oil reserves by 38%. Other countries of the Persian Gulf, both those shown in the graph and the rest, did not lag behind Kuwait in terms of reserve growth, and even vice versa.
Figure 3. Dynamics of proven oil reserves by individual countries (billions of barrels).
There is no independent confirmation of reserves for such countries; no data on reserves other than those provided directly by the governments of these countries is publicly available. Therefore, many experts today have serious doubts about the reliability of oil reserves in key OPEC member countries.
Reserves in Venezuela increased in 2008-2010 mainly due to heavy oil; in Canada (not shown in the graph), a similar event happened in 1999: oil reserves then increased from 50 to 182 billion barrels. It is important to note that the geological reserves of heavy oil in Venezuela and Canada are many times greater than those proven recoverable and appear to exceed the world's geological reserves of conventional oil. The size of proven recoverable reserves of heavy oil is significantly influenced by the emergence and availability of new technologies (SAGD), as well as the price of oil on the world market. The increase in reserves occurred mainly not due to new discoveries and growth in geological reserves, but due to a reassessment of the profitability of developing these reserves and the predicted oil recovery factor.
Figure 4 shows the dynamics of global proven reserves by group of countries. The graph shows that over the past 35 years, proven oil reserves have generally increased by two and a half times. This happened mainly due to unconventional reserves of heavy oil in Venezuela and Canada, as well as reserves of OPEC countries, about which there are serious doubts. In the rest of the world, inventories increased slightly. At the same time, the time for the discovery of truly large new deposits has irrevocably passed, and the increase in reserves is carried out mainly through revaluation of already known deposits.
Figure 4. World proven oil reserves over time by year (billions of barrels).
However, it often happens that proven reserves have to be revalued downward. This usually happens in cases where the previous estimate was too high as a result of the desire to certainly increase reserves. For example, in 2004, the large international company Royal Dutch Shell reduced its proven oil reserves by a total of more than 600 million tons, or almost 25%. In 2015, a number of companies involved in the development of unconventional oil in the United States announced a significant (30-50%) reduction in proven reserves due to lower oil prices - the development of a number of areas became deeply unprofitable, and, therefore, the reserves of these areas can no longer be considered proven. Perhaps, for such an excellent reason, geologically absent reserves were also written off.
From the above it is clear that the world's proven oil reserves are likely to be significantly overestimated. Moreover, this applies not only to OPEC member countries, which have political reasons for overestimating reserves. Public (both private and state-owned) oil companies whose shares are traded on stock exchanges regularly conduct international reserve audits. But they also have very good reasons to reflect in their reporting the largest possible amount of proven reserves, since the price of their shares and capitalization greatly depend on this. The credit rating of the organization, in turn, depends on the growth of the latter.
In total, doubtful reserves due to the abrupt increase in proven reserves in different countries amount to up to 40% of the total world volume, or about 100 billion tons.
Probable and undiscovered oil reserves. How long will supplies last?
As already mentioned in the first part of the article, proven oil reserves in a normal situation mean those reserves that exist with a probability of 90% or higher. Of course, with this approach, the most probable value of reserves in known fields is actually higher than proven reserves. To answer the question of how much oil is left in the world, probable reserves must be added to proven reserves, that is, existing reserves with a probability of 50 to 90%.
At the beginning of the development of a field, there are more probable reserves than proven reserves, since the available geological information is not enough to make statements about 90 percent probabilities. The longer exploration and production takes place, the more reserves move from the probable category to the proven category, since as deposits are geologically studied, the uncertainty in reserves becomes less and less. For this reason, it is difficult to assume the existence of a significant amount of probable reserves in known fields in the Persian Gulf oil and gas basin, which has been explored and produced for more than 70 years, especially given the doubts about the reported proven reserves in the area.
Given the fall in oil prices, the profitability of developing even the proven reserves of heavy oils in Venezuela and Canada is in question. So, by and large, it only makes sense to estimate probable reserves using the “rest of the world” category in Figure 4. The order of magnitude for proven and probable reserves is usually about the same, so probable reserves of more than 40 billion tons are unlikely to be expected in known fields.
In addition, there are also undiscovered deposits. An American government organization called the United States Geological Survey in 2012–13 released an assessment of undiscovered conventional and unconventional oil reserves in the United States, as well as conventional oil in the rest of the world, including the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. In total, the mathematical expectation of undiscovered oil reserves worldwide based on these works is approximately 600 billion barrels, or about 80 billion tons, including about 50 billion tons at sea.
Prospective reserves of unconventional oil are not easy to estimate. Since heavy oil has, for the most part, already been accounted for in the reserves of Venezuela and Canada, it makes sense to talk only about oil from low-permeability reservoirs. In general, in the world today such deposits contain no more than 10 billion tons of proven reserves. Such deposits are located in the same well-studied basins as traditional oil. Therefore, apparently, the order of magnitude of undiscovered reserves in ultra-low-permeability reservoirs is in the first tens of billions of tons.
Thus, in total, the world's probable and undiscovered oil reserves are about half of the proven reserves and do not significantly exceed the doubtful part of these proven reserves. That is, with a moderately skeptical view of the state of affairs, the amount of oil remaining in the world is equal to the amount of proven reserves according to reporting, that is, 240 billion tons. With reasonable (not unbridled) optimism, the amount of remaining oil will be about one and a half times larger, that is, about 360 billion tons. The multiplicity of total oil reserves ranges from 57 to 86 years.
Figure 5 shows that oil consumption in the world has more or less noticeably fallen three times over the past 50 years. In 1973 and 1979, the decline was caused by political events: in the first case, OPEC member countries imposed an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and in the second, the United States imposed sanctions against Iran in connection with the Islamic Revolution that took place there. The third fall occurred in 2008 due to the onset of the current global economic crisis. Otherwise, oil consumption has been growing almost linearly over the past 30 years, despite the growing use of alternative energy sources, the introduction of energy-efficient technologies and other factors negative for oil consumption. Thus, if we do not consider the scenario of a total global economic collapse, there is no reason to assume that the need for oil will decrease significantly in the coming years and decades.
Figure 5. World oil consumption by year (millions of tons).
Therefore, from a practical point of view, it is important not when the oil runs out, but when the possibility of increasing or maintaining production disappears, that is, when the so-called “peak production” passes. From calculations and experience it follows that peak production should occur approximately when half of all available reserves have been produced. Due to the uncertainty of proven, probable and undiscovered reserves, it is very difficult to predict exactly when this will happen. In total, from the 19th century to 2014, about 180 billion tons of oil were produced worldwide. Thus, less than half of all oil available on Earth has been produced to date (but at the same time, about 80% of the initially available reserves have already been discovered). Therefore, peak production appears to be a matter of the coming decades.
http://22century.ru/docs/oil-exploration-2
Oil is the world's most important source of energy, accounting for 33% of global energy consumption. It has high energy intensity and is convenient for transportation, which makes it an almost irreplaceable energy resource.
Oil is very important for the prosperity of a nation, as it provides energy for the development of the transport system and industry. It is also important for the survival of a nation as it greatly influences the country's defense capability. After all, many military vehicles use it and its processed products as fuel. Therefore, it is not surprising that oil is at the center of many political and military conflicts.
| A country | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | % of world production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 565,3 | 543,1 | 571,0 | 13,0% |
| Saudi Arabia |
567,9 | 586,6 | 561,7 | 12,8% |
| Russia | 541,9 | 555,9 | 554,4 | 12,6% |
| Canada | 215,6 | 218,6 | 236,3 | 5,4% |
| Iran | 180,5 | 216,8 | 234,2 | 5,3% |
| Iraq | 195,6 | 217,6 | 221,5 | 5,0% |
| China | 214,6 | 199,7 | 191,5 | 4,4% |
| UAE | 175,0 | 181,6 | 176,3 | 4,0% |
| Kuwait | 148,1 | 152,6 | 146,0 | 3,3% |
| Venezuela | 135,4 | 123,1 | 108,3 | 2,5% |
Oil resources still continue to be the main source of energy on our planet. Only products from solar, wind, or nuclear energy have not yet achieved this title. Every day, platforms and drilling rigs allow us to extract one hundred billion barrels of raw material from the ground. Which country produces the most “black gold”? Where are the world's most important oil reserves located? We will try to collect all known data into a kind of rating.
On the ninth line The United Arab Emirates is firmly in the ranking. Their share of global oil sales as a whole is almost four percent. The main consumers of raw materials from the UAE remain the countries of Southeast Asia, India and Japan. As a government report on oil reserves shows, the vast majority of oil produced comes from the emirate of Abu Dhabi - almost 95% of everything produced from rigs throughout the country. The UAE is in no hurry to increase the pace of development of its sources, and therefore produces only two hundred thousand barrels more daily than its previously mentioned South American competitor.
Eighth place In the list of the largest oil producers, another state in the Middle East region is occupied - Kuwait. Its oil industry was almost completely destroyed in the early 1990s. Then the state was occupied by Iraqi troops. After the armed intervention of the US military, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered a retreat and the accompanying destruction of all Kuwaiti pipelines and drilling rigs. Now this power has been able to fully recover from the terrible damage - to date, 2.8 million barrels of “black gold” are produced here every day.
How much oil does the North American supplier have left?
Seventh position The rating is in the hands of Canada, a country that most effectively combines the search and production of oil, both on land and at the bottom of water bodies. The main resource reserves of this state are concentrated in one of its many provinces, Alberta. Active development of the wealth of these places began in those days when the territory was a dominion under the protectorate of the British Empire. Nowadays, Canadian positions in the global energy market have been strengthened due to the exploration of new deposits and the use of innovative methods of mining. On average, 2.9 million barrels are lifted to the surface per day.
Bitter rivals
Sixth Iran is the world's largest exporter. Its raw mineral deposits are truly enormous - although the above-mentioned Venezuela holds the first place in oil reserves, according to experts, Iranian exports in current volumes will continue for at least ninety years. Sanctions have been a huge obstacle to strengthening the country’s position in the oil resource export market for several decades. They were imposed by decision of the United States, Great Britain and a number of other states in response to the Iranian nuclear program, which almost culminated in the creation of atomic weapons. Now the process of lifting restrictions has begun and Iran is ready to increase its already large volumes of daily oil production, which now amounts to approximately 3 million barrels.
Fifth place on the list belongs to the Iranians' longtime opponents, Iraq. Even during the reign of Saddam Hussein, the state tried to become sole in the Middle East. The plan failed - the wars started by the dictator were not successful, and the rest of the powers in the region were able to modernize their production and win the competition. Iraq currently produces 3.1 million barrels of crude oil per day. However, these figures could change downward at any moment: after the withdrawal of coalition troops led by the United States from the territory of the state, Iraq was overwhelmed by the war with Islamist terrorists, which undermines the state oil industry.
East Asian hegemon
China is the country that occupies fourth place in the world on oil production. Due to the huge number of residents of the country and the industrial production operating on the territory of the state, the bulk of the extracted raw materials goes to satisfy the country’s own needs. Moreover, the Chinese have to additionally purchase “black gold” from other countries. It is quite logical, given the fact of the immediate neighborhood, that the main partner of the Celestial Empire in this matter is Russia (see). China manages to produce 4 million barrels per day.
The potential leader in oil reserves is the United States
Three The largest oil magnates are discovered by the United States of America. Three regions are considered the most important for the state’s oil industry: Alaska, Texas and California, where the main production of raw minerals takes place. Like China, the United States also purchases a certain amount of oil in order to create a strategic reserve in case of force majeure. Every day, 8 million barrels of raw materials are extracted here, but with Donald Trump coming to power in the country, progress began towards increasing the daily development of deposits. Second place in the list of the world's main oil producers. Export of fossil raw materials is the most important and key source of the country’s income; it is on it that the well-being of its citizens rests. 10.4 million barrels of oil are produced here per day, exported to Southeast Asia, China and the United States.
Russia's oil reserves are amazing!
In February 2017 largest earner The Russian Federation has again become the “black gold” on the planet. Its oil reserves and resources are amazing: enterprises produce 10.5 million barrels daily, which, according to experts, are completely restored in the earth’s crust within a fairly short period of time. According to the most approximate forecasts, the reserves of raw materials in the Russian Federation should be sufficient for the next century (see).
Changes in the ranking of major oil producers occur regularly. World oil reserves by country are changing places in terms of indicators, countries are passing the palm to each other. You can be sure that changes to the list can happen very soon.
Recently, the topic of oil production has gained great popularity in Russian society. Disputes about how much the country produces, and what the black reserves are in Russia and the world, do not subside. Some politicians even call the Russian Federation a petrocarbon superpower. But is this really so?
A detailed study of the actual oil deposits in the world reveals a completely different picture. Russia is not even among the 5 countries with the largest oil fields. The largest amount of black gold is found in Venezuela, followed by Saudi Arabia, followed by Canada, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE. Russia occupies an honorable 8th place with a reserve of about 80 billion barrels, which corresponds to 5% of world oil reserves.
Thus, we can with a high probability answer the question that is often discussed by both officials and ordinary people: what will happen on the world oil market if Russia stops supplying black gold due to a trade embargo caused by economic sanctions or due to other reasons? And the answer is quite simple: the world oil market will not undergo major changes; the missing amount of oil will very quickly be compensated by increasing its production by other countries.
TOP 30 countries in the world with the largest oil reserves in 2019
| A country | Place | Reserves billion barrels |
| Venezuela | 1 | 300,878 |
| Saudi Arabia | 2 | 266,455 |
| Canada | 3 | 169,709 |
| Iran | 4 | 158,400 |
| Iraq | 5 | 142,503 |
| Kuwait | 6 | 101,500 |
| UAE | 7 | 97,800 |
| Russia | 8 | 80,000 |
| Libya | 9 | 48,363 |
| USA | 10 | 35,230 |
| Nigeria | 11 | 37,062 |
| Kazakhstan | 12 | 30,000 |
| China | 13 | 25,620 |
| Qatar | 14 | 25,244 |
| Brazil | 15 | 12,999 |
| Algeria | 16 | 12,200 |
| Angola | 17 / 18 | 8,273 |
| Ecuador | 17 / 18 | 8,273 |
| Mexico | 19 | 7,640 |
| Azerbaijan | 20 | 7,000 |
| Norway | 21 | 6,611 |
| Oman | 22 | 5,373 |
| India | 23 | 4,621 |
| South Sudan | 24 | 5,000 |
| Vietnam | 25 / 26 | 4,400 |
| Egypt | 25 / 26 | 4,400 |
| Malaysia | 27 | 3,600 |
| Indonesia | 28 | 3,230 |
| Yemen | 29 | 3,000 |
| Great Britain | 30 | 2,564 |