Spreading Democracy

Whatever you read or hear about petroleum production or export, people are always throwing rankings around and it has bothered me because they are often inconsistent with each other. For example, in the film The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (see post below), I distinctly heard Venezuela being described as both the 3rd and 4th largest exporter of oil. It does not mean that anyone is necessarily wrong -- rankings fluctuate.

Anyway, I decided to do a little bit of research and put some rankings together for my own reference and to share here.

Top oil-producing countries 2004
1. Saudi Arabia
2. Russia
3. United States
4. Iran
5. Mexico
6. China
7. Norway
8. Canada
9. European Union
10. Venezuela

* If the EU is not counted as one country, then Venezuela is 9th and United Arab Emirates are 10th.

Top oil-exporting countries 2004
1. Saudi Arabia
2. Russia
3. Norway
4. Iran
5. Venezuela
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Kuwait
8. Nigeria
9. Mexico
10. Algeria

Proven oil reserves 2005
1. Saudi Arabia – 261.9 billion barrels
2. Canada – 178.8
3. Iran – 125.8
4. Iraq – 115.0
5. Kuwait – 101.5
6. United Arab Emirates – 97.8
7. Venezuela – 77.2
8. Russia – 60.0
9. Libya – 39.0
10. Nigeria – 35.3

** Oil reserves refers to portions of oil in place that are recoverable under economic constraints.

The United States, by the way, is estimated to have between 21.3 and 29.3 billion barrels in oil reserves.

Oil consumption 2003 – barrels per day
1. United States – 19,650,000
2. Japan – 5,290,000
3. China – 4,975,000
4. Germany – 2,813,000
5. Russia – 2,595,000
6. Brazil – 2,199,000
7. South Korea – 2,140,000
8. India – 2,130,000
9. France – 2,026,000
10. Italy – 1,866,000


Sources:
CIA World Factbook
http://www.theodora.com/
http://www.infoplease.com/
Wikipedia