Every year, the U.S. will consume ~7,300,000,000 barrels of oil in our country alone.
That's 7.3 BILLION barrels every year. It also breaks down to about 20,000,000 (20 Million) barrels every day.
On a world wide scale, that use jumps up to about 27.375 billion barrels every year that is consumed by the world, and about 75 million barrels every day.
There are a few major players in the oil game, and most of us know who these are. We hear about the wars for oil in the Middle East, protecting our economy's interest and need for oil that our prices skyrocket 150% at the slightest hint of any turmoil, and as that turmoil gains steam our prices are hiked even higher.
But, were you aware that it's actually not the Middle East providing the majority of oil found in the world? There's 5 major producers of oil, the first one being Saudi Arabia and is only one of 2 middle eastern countries found on this list.
Following Saudi Arabia, the formet Soviet Union is the 2nd largest producer in the world. After that, surprise surprise, the USA is the 3rd largest producer, with Iran and China following suit afterwards.
PRODUCTION:
| 1 |  Russia | 10,120,000 | 2010 |
| 2 |  Saudi Arabia | 9,764,000 | 2009 |
| 3 |  United States | 9,056,000 | 2009 |
| 4 |  Iran | 4,172,000 | 2009 |
| 5 |  China | 3,991,000 | 2009 |
The U.S.A. alone hogs up about 33% of the entire world's production to itself. That means that while we have one of the highest production rates, we also buy from other countries at a massive rate as well. We are the world's top oil user by far.
Speaking about the U.S.A., with Libya going up in flames recently we were expected to have gas prices rise by, what, $1.50/gallon at least, and Obama making notions that we may have to tap into our own oil reserves to make it through this tough time... except the USA only gets ~5% of all oil from Libya, and that's being nominal.
We could have easily increased production within our own territories, or taken up Saudi Arabia on their guarantees that they can increase production without a problem, in fact, they'd have liked to. But instead, our concerns and panic will inflate our gas prices above what's comfortable, making everybody in the country struggle as it's harder to travel, food prices increase, etc.
We don't match close to any other country of our *known* and publicly released reserves, but it's definitely enough to keep us running. Based on our current usage, production, and total amount of our own *known* reserves, we could self-sustain our use for many years, until we either got back on track or was able to find an alternative energy source.
The reserves-to-production ratio (R/P) equaled 11.26 years in 2007. Meaning, that given the statistics of usage by the US and its reserves as of 2007, we could self-sustain our oil needs for 11.26 years
| Country | Reserves[16] | Production [17] | Reserve life 1 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 109bbl | 109m3 | 106bbl/d | 103m3/d | years | |
| Saudi Arabia | 267 | 42.4 | 9.7 | 1,540 | 127.5 |
| Iraq | 180 | 29 | 3.5 | 560 | 142 |
| Canada | 179 | 28.5 | 2.1 | 330 | 188 |
| Iran | 138 | 21.9 | 4.0 | 640 | 95 |
| Kuwait | 104 | 16.5 | 2.6 | 410 | 110 |
| Venezuela | 99 | 15.7 | 2.7 | 430 | 100 |
| United Arab Emirates | 98 | 15.6 | 2.9 | 460 | 93 |
| Russia | 60 | 9.5 | 9.9 | 1,570 | 17 |
| Kazakhstan | 47 | 7.5 | 1.4 | 220 | 93 |
| Libya | 41 | 6.5 | 1.7 | 270 | 66 |
| Nigeria | 36 | 5.7 | 2.4 | 380 | 41 |
| United States | 21 | 3.3 | 7.5 | 1,190 | 8 |
| China | 16 | 2.5 | 3.9 | 620 | 11 |
| Qatar | 15 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 140 | 46 |
| Algeria | 12 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 350 | 15 |
| Brazil | 12 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 370 | 14 |
| Mexico | 12 | 1.9 | 3.5 | 560 | 9 |
| Total of top seventeen reserves | 1,243 | 197.6 | 63.5 | 10,100 | 54 |
Now given that was as of 2007, and using most recent reserve/ production statistics that drops to about 8.7 years without any conservation or change of habit of what we currently use. And that's probably the lowest in the entire world of all "oil countries".
I am not worried about running out of oil. The entire world could self-sustain on current usage for easily 100 years without any emphasis of conservation, advance in technology, efficiency, etc.
We produce a LOT of oil though as you can see from the above table. Only behind Russia and Saudi Arabia. yet still, in 2009 we ended up importing over 51% of all of our petroleum from other countries. So stepping back real quick, we consume about 20 million barrels a day, and produce about 7.5 million barrels a day for our own use. We are probably the most oil hungry country in the world, again, consuming about 33% of all oil produced in our own country.
Russia produces more than any other, but it is also one of their primary exports. Their total GDP is about $1 trillion. Compared to the USA, where it's $14 trillion. Just thought I'd put that here for a little perspective on things.
OIL SHALE
One last thing I want to go over, is alternative sources for oil and how we're nowhere close to being concerned about running out. We have a mineral in the United States that is in far higher concentration than anywhere else in the world, but we don't tap into it at all. This mineral is mined from the Earth, and with a good amount of processing can produce a product very similar to oil in the form of a synthetic oil. Again, it takes extra processing but it can be used primarily just the same.
The USA has the largest reserves of the mineral in the world. The USA shale oil reserves contribute to ~62% of all the world's know shale oil reserves. 70% of that is land owned and accessible by the federal government, but won't be accessed as it's considered mainly a resource for developing countries due to its inefficiencies.
It's estimated as of 2005 that there's enough shale oil in the world to provide 2.8 - 3.3 trillion barrels of shale oil that can be used similarly to standard petroleum.
FURTHER DISCOVERY OF U.S. RESERVES
This is not even on top of the actual crude oil we could discover and tap into still in the United States. The OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) is land in the Gulf of Mexico, off the East and West coasts, and surrounding the submerged lands of Alaska that are owned by the federal USA government, but not by any states. And this area is rich with oil.
The Minerals Management Service (MMS) estimates the Federal Outer Continental Shelf(OCS) contains between 66.6 and 115.1 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable crude oil, with a mean estimate of 85.9 billion barrels
So we have say 80 billion barrels undiscovered and recoverable, and that's just in the OCS. It's estimated, total, that in all of the U.S.A. we have about 134 billion barrels undiscovered. Plus an extra 2 trillion barrels of shale oil we could recover as well.
Given a consumption rate of even an outrageous 10 billion barrels a year (25% more than we currently use), we could self-sustain our use with no changes for over 25 years. Given cooperation with the rest of the world, conservation, advances in efficiency, and alternative fuels the world can EASILY sustain its dependence on oil for 100 years. Canada, and southern America have some of the largest concentrations of oil reserves as well, so I don't think that our dependance on oil is going anywhere quick nor do I believe that we will ever run out before an alternative energy source is found.
Why haven't we brought out new technologies that don't require oil?
Between 2004 and 2007, the profits of the six supermajors totaled $494.8 billion
I, for one, am not concerned in the least that we will ever run out of oil. I am in the belief that there are alternative fuel sources that are ready to go, but why use those when you can still make profit and function just fine with the oil dependence we have now? Why would Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Canada ever give up one of their major exports that helps them keep an eye and some level of control over the world?
But also, why are we letting our officials create this panic about oil reserves, production, imports, yadda yadda yadda when it is NOT a problem. Why aren't we focusing more on the cleaner burning or more efficiently using the oil we have, so everybody wins? Why don't we invest some of that 400 Billion in profits in fail safe drilling methods so we don't have situations similar to the BP disasters or the Chevron pipe leak we had here in Utah not too long ago?
Because of the allowance and leniency allowed on corporations by our governments. We need to be stricter, we need to worry about advancement in technology and protecting the environment because it will always sustain us as long as we sustain it. Even if we do run out of oil before free energy, cold fusion, or the next big break through in nuclear energy comes through, we still have MASSIVE amounts of shale oil to use where the same players will come out on top! We need to always strive to change, adapt, and grow. Always.
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