World's Top 24 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2013 -- OGJ

by David Rachovich

Estimated Proved Reserves of Natural Gas 

Rank	Country	Proved reserves (billion cubic feet), Jan 1, 2013	Proved reserves (billion cubic feet), Jan 1, 2012	Share of total, Jan 1, 2013
1.	Russia	1,688,228	1,680,000	24.9%
2.	Iran*	1,187,000	1,168,000	17.5%
3.	Qatar*	890,000	890,000	13.1%
4.	Saudi Arabia*	287,844	283,000	4.2%
5.	United States^	272,509	272,509	4.0%
6.	Turkmenistan	265,000	265,000	3.9%
7.	United Arab Emirates*~	215,035	215,035	3.2%
8.	Venezuela*	195,100	195,100	2.9%
9.	Nigeria*	182,008	180,458	2.7%
10.	Algeria*	159,054	159,000	2.3%
11.	China	124,230	107,000	1.8%
12.	Iraq*	111,520	111,520	1.6%
13.	Indonesia	108,400	141,060	1.6%
14.	Kazakhstan	85,000	85,000	1.3%
15.	Malaysia	83,000	83,000	1.2%
16.	Egypt	77,200	77,200	1.1%
17.	Norway	73,100	70,870	1.1%
18.	Canada	68,166	61,004	1.0%
19.	Uzbekistan	65,000	65,000	1.0%
20.	Kuwait*	63,000	63,000	0.9%
21.	Libya*	54,630	52,795	0.8%
22.	India	43,825	40,575#	0.6%
23.	Netherlands	43,436	46,000	0.6%
24.	Australia	43,037	27,850	0.6%
World total		6,793,369	6,746,581#	100.0%
Total OPEC**		3,359,363	3,330,137	49.5%

Notes: OGJ's annual look at worldwide gas reserves shows an increase to 6,793.4 trillion cubic feet/tcf (or 6.79 quadrillion cubic feet/Qcf) from 6,746.6 tcf in last year's survey. Total gas reserves for OPEC are up nearly 1 percent from a year ago.

*OPEC member. Data for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia exclude one-half of the reserves in the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone. Neutral Zone contains 1,000 bcf, i.e. 1 tcf, of gas reserves.

~Including Abu Dhabi – 200,000 bcf, Dubai – 3,785 bcf, Ras al-Khaimah – 1,140 bcf and Sharjah – 10,110 bcf.

**Including also Angola (12,925 bcf for 2013), Ecuador (247 bcf for 2013) and the Neutral Zone (1,000 bcf for 2013) .

^Dry natural gas proved reserves in the United States were estimated at 272.5 tcf for 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Dry natural gas is that volume of gas that remains after all of the liquefiable hydrocarbons and nonhydrocarbon impurities are removed from the natural gas stream; first at lease separation facilities near the producing well (lease condensate), then downstream at a natural gas processing plant (natural gas plant liquids). But, proved reserves of U.S. dry natural gas also increased by 12 percent from 2009 to 2010, to 304.6 tcf---please see EIA, "U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and NG Liquids Proved Reserves," Aug 1, 2012 and the pdf file -- D.R.  Natural gas proved reserves, estimated as "wet" natural gas, including natural gas plant liquids, increased by 12 percent in 2010 to 317.6 tcf, the twelfth consecutive annual increase and the first year U.S. volumes surpassed 300 tcf. Four of the five largest natural gas states (Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Colorado) registered net gains, with Louisiana and Texas adding a combined 17.8 tcf, over one-half of the overall national increase. Pennsylvania's proved natural gas reserves more than doubled in 2010, contributing about one-fifth of the overall U.S. increase. Expanding shale gas developments in these and other areas, perhaps most notably in Pennsylvania's portion of the Appalachian Basin in the Marcellus play, drove overall increases in 2009 and 2010---please see ibid. The U.S. technically recoverable natural gas is estimated to exceed 2,200 tcf. Given domestic consumption of c. 24  tcf, the U.S. has sufficient resources available to satisfy domestic needs for more than 90 years---please see Bill Richardson and Spencer Abraham, "Shale gas exports will aid US and its allies," FT, Dec 20, 2012. -- D.R.

#Revised figure

 

Source: "Worldwide Look at Reserves and Production [Table]," Oil & Gas Journal, Dec, 2012. 

(Also, please see my post "World's Top 15 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2012 – OGJ," and Aaron & David Rachovich, "World's Top 22 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2011 – OGJ." – D.R.)