World's Top 22 Proven Oil Reserves Holders, Jan 1, 2011 -- OGJ

by Aaron and David Rachovich

Estimated Proved Oil Reserves

Rank	Country	Proved reserves (billion barrels), Jan 1, 2011	Proved reserves (billion barrels), Jan 1, 2010	Share of  total, Jan 1, 2011
1.	Saudi Arabia*	260.1	259.9	17.7%
2.	Venezuela	211.2	99.4	14.4%
3.	Canada	175.2	175.2	11.9%
4.	Iran	137.0	137.6	9.3%
5.	Iraq	115.0	115.0	7.8%
6.	Kuwait*	101.5	101.5	6.9%
7.	United Arab Emirates	97.8	97.8	6.7%
8.	Russia	60.0	60.0	4.1%
9.	Libya	46.4	44.3	3.2%
10.	Nigeria	37.2	37.2	2.5%
11.	Kazakhstan	30.0	30.0	2.0%
12.	Qatar	25.4	25.4	1.7%
13.	China	20.4	20.4	1.4%
14.	United States	19.1	19.1	1.3%
15.	Brazil	12.9	12.8	0.9%
16.	Algeria	12.2	12.2	0.8%
17.	Mexico	10.4	10.4	0.7%
18.	Angola	9.5	9.5	0.6%
19.	Azerbaijan	7.0	7.0	0.5%
20.	Ecuador	6.5	6.5	0.4%
21.	India	5.7	5.6	0.4%
22.	Norway	5.7	6.7	0.4%
Top 22		1,406.2	1,293.5	95.7%
Rest of world		63.4	60.7	4.3%
World total		1,469.6	1,354.2
Total OPEC**		1,064.8	951.3	72.5%

Notes: OGJ gathers estimates of proved reserves from an annual survey of official sources, including government agencies and ministries. Since most countries do not assess their reserves annually, many of the figures in the OGJ's latest report are unchanged from a year ago. Venezuela reports that its oil reserves total 211.17 billion bbl, buoyed by heavy oil in the Orinoco belt. As with Canada's oil sands, development of these heavy oil deposits will stretch far into the future. OGJ previously published Venezuela's oil reserves at 99.4 billion bbl. Canada's Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) announced in 2010 that due to production, its total remaining bitumen established reserve estimate for Alberta was revised to 169.9 billion bbl from 170.4 billion bbl. Conventional oil reserves are estimated at 1.4 billion bbl, down 2% from the previous estimate, ERCB reported. The latest estimates of Canada's total conventional oil reserves, however, had not been released as OGJ went to press. Also, new estimates of reserves for the U.S. were unavailable from the U.S. Energy Information Administration as of presstime and are therefore unchanged from last year's survey at 19.121 billion bbl of oil. In October 2010, OPEC members Iraq and Iran each hiked their reserves estimates---see my post here. Iraq cited work by international oil companies developing 12 fields when it increased its reserves estimate to 143 billion bbl of oil from 115 billion bbl. Iran, only days later, announced that its new official oil reserve estimate had increased to 150.31 billion bbl from 137.62 billion bbl and would rise again by yearend. OGJ has included neither Iraq's nor Iran's recently updated reserves in the table this year but instead will await further discussion of these figures to make upward adjustments. Proved oil reserves in Brazil are 12.857 billion bbl with 93% offshore. Petrobras reports estimates of 5-8 billion bbl of recoverable oil in Tupi and Iracema fields and 1.1-2 billion bbl of recoverable oil in Guara field. Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) said that country's offshore Libra subsalt oil discovery could hold as much as 15 billion bbl of oil---see my post here. But analysts have expressed a certain degree of skepticism about this estimate, as it was based on the results of a single well that has not yet reached full depth. – Please read Marilyn Radler, "Total Reserves, Production Climb on Mixed Results," OGJ, Dec. 6, 2010. Proved/proven oil reserves - Generally taken to be those quantities that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. 

*Excluding one-half of the reserves in the Neutral Zone.
**OPEC has a total of 12 member countries: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Rounding out the total OPEC reserves are the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia's Neutral Zone reserves of 5 billion bbl. 

Source: "Special Report -- [Table:] Worldwide Look at Reserves and Production," Oil & Gas Journal, Dec 6, 2010.

(The Persian Gulf/Arabian Gulf, including Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Neutral Zone, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, contains 747.4 billion bbl of proved oil reserves, accounting for some 51% of the world total. Proved oil reserves in Oman are 5.5 billion bbl, in Neutral Zone 5 billion bbl and in Bahrain 0.12 billion bbl, as of Jan 1, 2011. A year ago, OGJ estimated Persian Gulf proved oil reserves at 747.8 billion bbl, representing 55% of the world's total proved oil reserves. Separately, according to the OGJ's Jan 1, 2011 estimate, Egypt's proved oil reserves stand at 4.4 billion bbl, an increase of 0.7 billion bbl from 2010 reserves estimate of 3.7 billion bbl. Also, please see our post "World's Top 23 Proven Oil Reserves Holders, 2007-2010 -- BP," and compare the OGJ rankings above with the BP's rankings of the top oil reserves holders. Furthermore, please see "World's Top 22 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2011 -- OGJ," here; "World's Top 15 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2012 -- OGJ" and (Update:) "World's Top 23 Proven Oil Reserves Holders, Jan 1, 2012 -- OGJ." -- D.R.)