31 thoughts on “Who Has The Oil, Who Uses The Oil”

  1. Rather old data, given it’s 2007 and new reports are readily available. Also excludes 163.5bbs of proven Canadian oilsands reserves. Good thing there’s no easy excuse to invade…

  2. So where’s the map that would show oil *usage* by country size? Colours just don’t have the same impact.

  3. Also excludes oil shale reserves, which may become viable at some point in the future, as well as any deep sea or arctic reserves.

  4. AFAIK, Canada’s reserves are not “ready-to-use” reserves, i.e. pump and refine, they need additional processing. That’s probably why they’re not included above.

  5. America was the No.1 exporter of oil in the 50s.
    Read “The Prize” by Daniel Yergin – it’s quite eye-opening.
    PS. These reserves are what they say they have! Not what they have!!!

  6. Ps. google peak oil.

    OPEC countries doubled their claimed reserves in the early 80s after no new discoveries – only when OPEC changed their own policy to base volume per country permitted based on what that countries proven reserves were.
    Saudi from 100 -> 235bn barrels
    Kuwait 20 -> 50
    Iraq 35 -> 100
    Strangely the Saudi’s “still” claim to have 235bn barrels despite having pumped over 40bn in the last 20 years… hmmm…

  7. Actually recent stats from the oil companies and economists in this field show that tar sands are commercially viable at around $21 a barrel now.
    Considering that the US dollar has devalued nearly 40% in the past 5 years, that outs it at around $13 a barrel using 1992 US dollars.
    Middle east oil costs “only” about $6 per barrel to produce.
    However, with costs of tanker traffic and war costs affecting the middle east, some recent estimates put the deliverd cost of middle east oil at about$10 a barrel.
    That does not even ionclude the US investment and NATO investment in war in the middle east.
    If we add that cost factor to the equation the production and delivery cost of a barrel of oil could be very close.
    Obviously middle east reserves are overstated to some fairly large degree. One school of thought leads that Iran is the likely first producer to run out substantially, in about 10 years. Hence their current interest in Iraq.
    The US is sorely tempted to strike at Iran, as they fear that with the pressure for them to vacate Iraq, the fear is that Iran will likely fill the void they leave.

  8. A couple of things worth mentioning here:

    1) The reserves are those declared by the oil companies, and it’s generally in their best interests to be accurate. Remember how Shell’s shares plummeted when they were found to have overstated their reserves. The oil companies can afford the best geologists – they are probably right.

    2) Tar and oil sands / shales are not viable reserves and, although they are being greedily eyed by post-peak oil barons, there are two big problems:

    – It is very difficult (thus expensive) to get usable oil from such reserves, which is why Russia and Canada are declaring interests in deep sea arctic oil.

    – They are very, very dirty in terms of both residue and lifetime emissions. The first company to go all out for oil sands will have destroyed any attempt they have made to appear green.

    Keith

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