Leading countries for oil production on the planet: Saudi Arabia, Russia, USA

Oil is the main energy resource of the planet for today. It is not by chance that it is also called black gold. Which countries are the world's leaders in oil production today? You will learn about this from our article.

Worldwide oil reserves

To answer the question: "which countries are the world's leaders in oil production today?", One should clearly distinguish between "oil reserves" and "oil production".

Under the world's oil reserves, scientists mean the amount of resources that can be extracted from the earth's interior with modern technology development. There are several classifications of these stocks: they can be explored, evaluated, prospective, estimated, and so on.

There are several units for global oil reserves. Thus, in Russia and the UK, tons are used to estimate this resource, in Canada and Norway - cubic meters, in many other states - barrels.

Total reserves of "black gold" on the planet are estimated today at a figure of 240 billion tons. About 70% of these world reserves are concentrated in the OPEC countries , an intergovernmental organization that united a number of oil-producing states.

The top five countries in terms of oil reserves (as of 2014) are: Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran and Iraq.

Leading countries for oil production: the top ten

According to one version of the scientists, for the first time this energy resource was extracted from the earth in the eighth century. It happened on the Apsheron Peninsula. Which countries are the leaders in oil production in the modern world?

The well-known researcher of the dynamics of the world oil production, VN Shchelkachev, highlighted 1979. Prior to this chronological milestone, the extraction of this resource doubled every decade. But after 1979, the growth rate of planetary oil production slowed significantly.

So, the leading oil producing countries to date (in brackets the percentage of global oil production is indicated):

• Saudi Arabia (12.9%);
• Russia (12.7);
• United States (12.3);
• China (5.0);
• Canada (5.0);
• Iran (4.0);
• UAE (4.0);
• Iraq (3.8);
• Kuwait (3.6);
• Venezuela (3.3).

In general, in these countries, almost 67% of oil is produced annually.

There is information that the largest oil producing countries on this list may soon be swapped. So, in May 2015, the Russian Federation extracted 500 million more barrels from the earth's interior than Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's oil industry

Many of the world's leading oil producers in the modern world are located in the Middle East. One of them is Saudi Arabia. Oil was first discovered here in 1930. After this event, the given Arab state changed qualitatively.

Today, the entire economy of Saudi Arabia is focused on the export of this energy resource. All the deposits of "black gold" in this state are controlled by Saudi Aramco. Deliveries of oil to the world market bring Saudi Arabia up to 90% of total revenues! Such high volumes of oil production gave impetus to the development of many other industries of the country.

The main consumers of Arabian oil are the United States, as well as the states of East Asia. Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia is the absolute leader in oil production in the world, the standard of living of people in this country is still not high enough.

Features of the oil industry in Russia

Russia is the richest country on the planet in terms of reserves of various minerals. In addition to oil, natural gas, coal and non-ferrous metals are produced on a large scale here.

In Russia, "black gold" is not only mined, but also actively processed, producing a number of petroleum products: gasoline, mazut, diesel fuel, etc. However, the quality of these products is still not high enough, which is a major problem for their successful export to the world market .

In recent years, the situation in the Russian oil industry has somewhat improved. In particular, financial injections (investments) in this branch have increased. Gradually, the depth of oil refining is also growing - today this figure in Russia is about 71%.

Oil Production and Refining in the USA

The United States of America is one of the world's top three producers of oil and oil products. At the same time, the state not only exports "black gold", but also actively buys it from other countries. It's an amazing fact: in the US, 4 times more oil is consumed every year than produced.

1761 - this is the number of drilling rigs currently operating in the United States. 56 of them extract crude oil from the offshore shelf.

In American oil production, first of all, there are three states: Alaska, California and Texas. In addition, the US has the so-called Strategic Petroleum Reserve - a strategic oil reserve, which should be sufficient for the country for 90 days (in case of unforeseen situations). This reserve is dispersed in different regions of the United States and is stored in underground salt domes.

Finally...

So, the leading countries for oil production on the planet are Saudi Arabia, Russia, and also the United States. These states extract about 37% of the global production of this resource from the earth.