Top 10 Petroleum Rich Countries

The top leading petroleum producing countries are listed below. Petroleum is found in upper parts of the earth’s crust including porous rock formations. It is mostly used for producing gasoline and fuel oil both of which are primary energy sources.

 

1. Saudi Arabia

The world’s leading exporter of petrol is Saudi Arabia. Petroleum reserves fuel the economy of Saudi Arabia and accounts for 90% of its total exports. 75% of government revenues also come from oil making it a welfare state.

 

2. Russia

Russia’s economic growth in recent years has been fuelled by energy exports because of the increase in oil production and relatively high world oil prices in the recent past. Most of domestic energy needs is met by natural gas. Owing to its oil exports Russia has witnessed better growth and economic expansion.

 

3. Iran

Iran had 8438 kms of oil pipelines and 19,161 kilometers of natural gas pipelines in 1997. It produces plenty of oil for its own use and for exports also. Iran has plenty of offshore oil fields from where oil is dispatched to processing centers. Its natural gas and fuel export industries have expanded a great deal over the last few years.

 

4. Mexico

Mexico was the seventh biggest producer of oil in the world in 2008. It produced about 3.19 million barrels per day during 2008 which was a slight decrease from what was produced in 2007. 88% of Mexico’s oil production was condensate and crude oil and the rest comprised of refinery grain and natural gas liquids. It is expected that Mexico will produce 2.7 million bbl/d of oil in 2010.

 

5. China

China is another large oil producing country but it is also one of the largest oil consumers next only to the U.S. It is expected to produce around 4 million bbl/d of oil in 2010. As of 2009, China had 16 bn barrels of proven oil reserves according to Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ).

 

6. Norway

Norway is also a largest producer of petroleum and has a well developed oil and natural gas sector. Most of the oil fields in Norway are located in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. New discoveries are made with respect to natural gas. The Barrents sea region is also to be developed further by the Norwegian government.

 

7. Canada

As of January 2009, Canada is said to have possessed 178 billion barrels of proven oil reserves next only to Saudi Arabia. However most of these reserves are difficult to process because they are oil sand deposits. Canada’s net exports of oil were 1.0 million bbl/d oil in 2008. Most of the country’s exports go to the U.S.

 

8. Venezuela

In the year 2009, Venezuela in South America had 99.0 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Venezuela is a leading oil supplier to the world market. Due to declines in existing oil wells, the country’s oil production has slightly fallen in recent years.

 

9. United Arab Emirates

As of January 2009, UAE’s proven oil reserves were 97.8 billion barrels. Abu Dhabi occupies the prime place as far as oil production is concerned followed by Dubai and Sharjah. UAE crude oil are of composite and light variety.

 

10. Kuwait

According to the recent Kuwait Oil & Gas Report the country is expected to contribute 10.35% of regional oil supply. The region produced 22.87mn b/d in 2001 which averaged to 26.29mn b/d in 2008.

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