Humanity is still tied to oil. Although the rise of renewable energies pointed to a revolution, we have recently seen that, when things get ugly and need energy peaks, we must pull fossil fuels again. The oil companies themselves that climbed into the renewable car were unmotable a few months ago, and that is why it is interesting to know what countries have that oil.
And it is something that is illustrated perfectly in this graph.
The rich. Prepared by visual capitalist with EIA data, production is not shown, but reserves. They are two very different things and will make sense immediately. Before that, Venezuela’s reserves are imposing, with 303,000 million certified barrels. Secondly, Saudi Arabia with 267,000 million and, in third place, an Iran in which oil has been the protagonist in recent weeks due to the confrontation with Israel.
A lot of distance from Venezuela we have Canada, Iraq, Eau, Kuwait, Russia, the United States or Libya. And, of these last names, the two American countries are those that are separated in the graph because they are not part of the OPEC.
OPEC+ and the monopoly. In 1960, five heavy pesos on that list (Venezuela, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi IRK and Rabia formed the organization of oil export countries, OPEC. Its objective was to coordinate and unify oil policies to maintain stable prices, ensure supply and, above all, protect your interests. Over time other countries were added, forming the well -known OPEC+ (which has its own internal cohesion problems.)
Together, member countries concentrate about 80% of global oil reserves, but although Venezuela has imposing reserves, its production does not go due to political blockages and limitations. At its peak, they produced three million barrels per day. Today they are the twenty -first producing country with 770,000 barrels per day, behind countries with much lower reserves.
One of the wells that China is operating
China wants to sign up for the list. At the top, the United States, Saudi Russia and Arabia lead the ranking with 8-12 million barrels per day, but although it does not appear in the graph, there is a country that we should take into account: China. Currently, the Asian giant is the largest world oil importer, but in recent years it has significantly increased its internal production.
Thanks to pharaonic works that include some of the deepest wells carried out by humanity, in March of this year they got a record of 4.6 million barrels per day. It was the highest point in the history of the country and, although inequality was very high between production and import, apart from continuing excavating they have been made with record reserves in recent years.
It is estimated that they have more than 1,180 million stored barrels that would shield them, for a time, any cut in the supply. The United States, for example, also has a reserve to respond to crises and the sources vary, but the updated figures point to about 400 million barrels.
Pure and hard strategy. Beyond the obvious importance of oil on the economy of a producing country, we have the strategic facet. As oil continues to move the world, having great reserves allows countries to exercise their influence on international politics. As? Coordinating production to influence prices and economy, for example.
And we have also seen how oil has been a leading agent in armed conflicts. The invasion of Iraq, for example, or the war between Iran and Israel that, without affecting the flow of oil, has already caused the market to panic.
Images | Visual Capitalist, CNPC
In WorldOfSoftware | The oil market faces a triple coup and IEA is clear why: Iran, Opep+ and electric vehicles
