The United States is one of the top crude oil producers

The United States became the world’s top crude oil producer in 2018 and maintained the lead position through 2022. U.S. oil refineries obtain crude oil produced in the United States and in other countries. Different types of companies supply crude oil to the world market.

Crude oil is produced in over half of U.S. states

Crude oil is produced in 32 U.S. states and in U.S. coastal waters. In 2022, five states combined accounted for about 72% of total U.S. crude oil production.

• The top five crude oil-producing states and their percentage shares of total U.S. crude oil production in 2022 were:
• Texas

  42.5%

• New Mexico

  13.3%

• North Dakota

  8.9%

• Colorado

  3.7%

• Alaska

  3.7%

In 2022, about 14.5% of U.S. crude oil was produced from wells located in the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico and about 0.1% was produced in Federal Offshore Pacific (California).

Although total U.S. crude oil production generally declined between 1985 and 2008, annual production increased nearly each year from 2009 through 2019, reaching a record high in 2019. More cost-effective drilling technology helped to boost production, especially in Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Colorado. U.S crude oil production declined in 2020 and 2021, mainly because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. In 2022, production increased about 6% from 2021.

Many countries produce crude oil

In 2022, 98 countries produced about 80.75 million barrels of crude oil, and five of those countries accounted for about 52% of the total.

• The top five crude oil producers and their percentage shares of world crude oil production in 2022 were:
• United States

  14.7%

• Saudi Arabia

  13.2%

• Russia

  12.7%

• Canada

  5.6%

• Iraq

  5.5%

Different types of oil companies supply crude oil

The world oil market is complex. Governments and private companies play various roles in moving crude oil from producers to consumers.

In the United States, companies produce crude oil on private and public land and in offshore waters. Most of these companies are independent producers, and they usually operate only in the United States. The other companies, often referred to as major oil companies, may have hundreds or thousands of employees and operate in many countries. Examples of major U.S. oil companies are Chevron and ExxonMobil.

Three types of companies supply crude oil to the global oil market. Each type of company has different operational strategies and production-related goals.

International oil companies

International oil companies (IOCs), which include ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell, are entirely investor owned and are primarily interested in increasing value for their shareholders. As a result, IOCs tend to make investment decisions based on economic factors. IOCs typically move quickly to develop and produce the oil resources available to them and sell their output in the global market. Although these producers must follow the laws of the countries in which they produce oil, their decisions are ultimately made in the interest of the company and its shareholders, not in the interest of a government.

National oil companies

National oil companies (NOCs) operate as extensions of a government or a government agency, and they include companies such as Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Pemex (Mexico), the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA). NOCs financially support government programs and sometimes provide strategic support. NOCs often provide fuels to their domestic consumers at a lower price than the fuels they provide to the international market. They do not always have the incentive, means, or intention to develop their reserves at the same pace as investor-owned international oil companies. Because of the diverse objectives of their supporting governments, NOCs pursue goals that may not be market oriented. The goals of NOCs often include employing citizens, furthering a government's domestic or foreign policies, generating long-term revenue to pay for government programs, and supplying inexpensive domestic energy. All NOCs that belong to members of OPEC fall into this category.

NOCs with strategic and operational autonomy

These NOCs function as corporate entities and do not operate as extensions of their countries' governments. This category includes Petrobras (Brazil) and Statoil (Norway), among others. These companies often balance profit-oriented concerns and the objectives of their countries with the development of their corporate strategies. Although these companies are driven by commercial concerns, they may also take into account their nations' goals when making investment or other strategic decisions.

OPEC members and Persian Gulf countries have a large share of world oil supplies

OPEC is a group that includes some of the world's most oil-rich countries. OPEC members at the beginning of 2021 held about 72% of the world's total proved crude oil reserves, and in 2022, accounted for about 38% of total world crude oil production. Each OPEC country has at least one NOC, but most also allow IOCs to operate within their borders. In 2022, the seven countries in the Persian Gulf produced about 32% of total world crude oil, and they held about 49% of world proved crude oil reserves at the start of 2021.

did youknow

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OPEC and Persian Gulf countries are not the same.

OPEC was organized in 1960 to negotiate with oil companies on matters of oil production, prices, and future concession rights. Of the 13 OPEC member countries at the end of 2021, only 5 of them were Persian Gulf countries. The OPEC members in bold in the table below are also in the Persian Gulf.

OPEC members Persian Gulf countries Algeria Bahrain Angola Iran Congo Iraq Equatorial Guinea Kuwait Gabon Qatar Iran Saudi Arabia Iraq United Arab Emirates Kuwait Libya Nigeria Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Venezuela

Last updated: September 21, 2023, with data available at the time of update.

Major oil-producing countries

As mentioned above, petroleum resources are not distributed evenly around the world. Indeed, according to estimates published for 2015 by the U.S. Department of Energy, as few as 15 countries account for more than 75 percent of the world’s oil production and hold roughly 93 percent of its reserves. Significantly, those countries are projected to have a correspondingly large percentage of the world’s remaining undiscovered oil resources, which are estimated by the extrapolation of known production and reserve data into untested sediments of similar geology.

Production and consumption of petroleum and other hydrocarbons country total production of petroleum and other liquids (thousands of barrels/day; 2017 estimate) % of world production of petroleum and other liquids (2017 estimate) total petroleum consumption (thousands of barrels/day; 2015 estimate) proven reserves of crude oil, NGPL,*** and other liquids (billions of barrels; 2018 estimate) *2016 data. **2017 data. ***Natural gas plant liquids (including ethane, propane, normal butane, isobutane, and pentanes). Source: Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, International Energy Statistics (2018). Venezuela 2,174.3 2.23 676 302.25 Saudi Arabia 12,089.6 12.34 3,302 266.21 Canada 4,986.1 5.09 2,378.83* 170.54 Iran 4,668.6 4.76 1,850 157.2 Iraq 4,462.4 4.55 788 148.77 Kuwait 2,927.7 2.99 489 101.5 United Arab Emirates 3,720.5 3.80 849 97.8 Russia 11,200.4 11.43 3,512 80 Nigeria 2,037.2 2.08 325 37.45 United States 15,599.5 15.92 19,872.67** 35.21** China 4,778.7 4.88 12,376.05 25.63 Qatar 2,068.3 2.11 255 25.24 Brazil 3,363.1 3.43 3,087 12.63 Mexico 2,260.5 2.31 2,026.75* 6.63 Norway 1,979 2.02 227.69* 6.38

Saudi Arabia

Arabian-Iranian basin oil fields

Major oil fields of the Arabian-Iranian basin region.

Saudi Arabia has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world—some 268 billion barrels, approximately 16 percent of the world’s proven reserves—not to mention significant potential for additional discoveries. The discovery that transformed Saudi Arabia into a leading oil country was the Al-Ghawār oil field. Discovered in 1948 and put into production in 1951, this field has proved to be the world’s largest, generating an estimated 55 billion barrels after 60 years of production. Saudi officials estimate that this field contains more than 120 billion barrels in recoverable reserves, if waterflooding (that is, water injection that forces oil from the oil reservoir) is considered. Another important discovery was the Saffāniyyah offshore field in the Persian Gulf in 1951. It is the third largest oil field in the world and the largest offshore. Saudi Arabia has eight other supergiant oil fields. Saudi fields, as well as many other Middle Eastern fields, are located in the great Arabian-Iranian basin.

Iraq,

Kuwait, and

Iran

The Middle Eastern countries of Iraq, Kuwait, and Iran are each estimated to have had an original oil endowment in excess of 100 billion barrels. Together they account for more than 23 percent of all proven reserves in the world. These countries have a number of supergiant fields, all of which are located in the Arabian-Iranian basin, including Kuwait’s field at Al-Burqān, which was discovered in 1938. Al-Burqān is the world’s second largest oil field, having originally contained 75 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Iraq possesses a significant potential for additional oil discoveries, primarily in its southwestern geographic region, where an estimated 45–100 billion barrels of crude oil are thought to reside. This resource has been slow to develop, because of the country’s involvement since 1980 in major wars and subsequent civil unrest.

Russia and the Caspian Sea region

northern Eurasian oil and gas fields

Sedimentary basins and major oil and gas fields of Europe, Russia, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia.

Russia is thought to possess the best potential for new discoveries. It has significant proven reserves—some 80 billion barrels, approximately 6 percent of the world total—and is one the world’s leading petroleum producers. Russian oil is derived from many sedimentary basins within the vast country, and two supergiant oil fields, Samotlor and Romashkino, were discovered in 1964 and 1949 respectively. Production from these mature fields is on the decline, however, so that total Russian oil output is maintained by production at new fields. The best prospects for new Russian discoveries appear to exist in difficult and expensive frontier areas such as Sakhalin Island.

The Tengiz field on the northeast border of the Caspian Sea is a supergiant with up to 9 billion barrels recoverable reserves. It was originally discovered in 1979; however, it was not actively developed until the American oil company Chevron gained equity in the region in 1993. Operating equipment and producing oil in this field are extremely complex because of the oil’s high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas, extremely high well pressure, and large volumes of natural gas.

Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field in the northern Caspian Sea was discovered in 2000. It was the largest and newest conventional field discovered since the finding of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay field in 1968. Kashagan is estimated to have already produced 7 billion to 9 billion barrels out of its proven 30-billion-barrel reserves.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa, primarily West Africa, holds a rich resource base with multiple supergiant and giant fields. Beginning to the north, Ghana boasts the most recent potential supergiant, the Jubilee field, with potential reserves of 2 billion barrels. It was discovered in 2007 and produced more than 110,000 barrels per day by 2011. However, the majority of sub-Saharan African recoverable reserves and supergiant or giant fields are in Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

Nigeria’s Niger delta harboured the country’s first commercial oil discovery, the Oloibiri oil field, which is now referred to as Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29. The Niger delta province spans from onshore to deepwater offshore and holds upward of 37.4 billion barrels of oil and 193 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. Several reservoirs make up the total play, with the giant Agbami light sweet crude field having over 1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. Agbami was discovered in 1998 and began to produce some 10 years later. Outside the Niger delta is the giant deepwater oil field Bonga, or OML 118, discovered in 1996 southwest of the Niger delta. With recoverable reserves of 600 million barrels, OML 118 began to produce in 2005.

Angola and its Cabinda province have recoverable reserves totaling more than 9.5 billion barrels of oil and 10.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Block 15 is the largest producing deepwater block in Angola. The offshore petroleum development zone is located in the Congo basin and has estimated total recoverable hydrocarbon reserves of 5 billion barrels. Discovered by ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration Angola in 1998, the giant Kizomba field with over 2 billion barrels of recoverable reserves launched Angola’s commercial production rise and the country’s membership in OPEC in 2007. The development of the Kizomba field was a phased-in process, with production beginning in 2004 and full development occurring in 2008. Angola’s Block 17 includes the Dalia and Pazflor fields. Dalia was first discovered in 1997. It began production in 2006 and has estimated recoverable reserves of 1 billion barrels. Pazflor field, discovered in 2000 and located northeast of Dalia, is estimated by the operator, Total, to contain recoverable reserves of 590 million barrels. The field first began to produce in 2011.

Equatorial Guinea has an estimated 1.1 billion barrels of recoverable reserves and boasts the first deepwater field brought online in West Africa. The giant Zafiro field was discovered in 1995 by ExxonMobil and Ocean Energy. It is located northwest of Bioko island, and it contained the bulk of the country’s recoverable reserves. Zafiro began production using a floating production storage and offloading vessel in 1996. Equatorial Guinea’s major hydrocarbon contribution, however, is its natural gas resources. The Alba field is estimated to have up to 4.4 trillion cubic feet of reserves or an equivalent 759 million barrels of oil. This enormous supply allowed government officials to justify significant infrastructure development on Bioko island for exporting liquefied natural gas and oil.

Gabon is West Africa’s second largest reserves holder with 2 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. The giant Rabi-Kounga field was discovered in 1985 and began production in 1989. Originally, Rabi-Kounga was estimated to have 440 million barrels of reserves, but this was increased in 1993 to 850 million barrels following a reappraisal, the creation of additional facilities, and infill drilling by the Shell petroleum company. By the early 21st century, however, only a fraction of this amount remained for further production.

United States, Mexico, and Canada

oil and gas fields of North America

Sedimentary basins and major oil and gas fields of North America.

North America has many sedimentary basins. Basins in the United States have been intensively explored, and their oil resources developed. More than 33,000 oil fields have been found, but there are only two supergiants (Prudhoe Bay, in the North Slope region of Alaska, and East Texas). Cumulatively, the United States has produced more oil than any other country. Its proven oil reserves amount to some 40 billion barrels, representing approximately 2 percent of the world total, but the country is still considered to have a significant remaining undiscovered oil resource. Prudhoe Bay, which accounted for approximately 17 percent of U.S. oil production during the mid-1980s, is in decline. This situation, coupled with declining oil production in the conterminous U.S., contributed to a significant drop in domestic oil output through the end of the 20th century. In the early 21st century, however, advancements in unconventional oil recovery resulted in skyrocketing production, and by 2015 the U.S had become the world’s leading petroleum-producing country.

Mexico has more than 10 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and is one of the top 10 oil producers in the world. However, its principal supergiant oil field (Cantarell, offshore of Campeche state), which is one of the largest conventional oil fields discovered in the Western Hemisphere, peaked at more than 2 million barrels per day in 2003, making it difficult to sustain current production levels well into the 21st century. Mexico’s potential supergiant, Chicontepec, which contains roughly 40 percent of the country’s reserves, is estimated to hold 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent. However, most of the oil is extra-heavy crude, and this circumstance has hampered development.

Canada has less than 10 billion barrels of proven reserves of conventional liquid oil, but huge deposits of oil sands in the Athabasca region of Alberta in western Canada bring the country’s total proven oil reserves to more than 170 billion barrels, behind only oil giants Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Canada’s largest oil field is Hibernia, discovered in the Jeanne d’Arc basin off Newfoundland in 1979. This giant field began producing in 1997 and was soon joined by two other fields, Terra Nova (first production 2002) and White Rose (first production 2005).

Venezuela and Brazil

Venezuela is the largest oil exporter in the Western Hemisphere and has long been an important country in the world oil market. With approximately 298 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, it has the world’s largest oil endowment. Most of the estimated 500 billion barrels of potential reserves, however, are in the form of extra-heavy oil and bitumen deposits located in the Orinoco belt in the central part of the country, which have not been exploited to a large extent. The country’s most important producing field is the Bolivar Coastal field. Discovered in 1917, this complex of large and small reservoirs is found in the Maracaibo basin in the west. These mature fields have produced over 70 percent of the estimated recoverable reserves, but they are declining in production.

Since the late 20th century, Brazil has emerged as an important energy producer. Its 15.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves are the second largest in South America. Most of those reserves are located in the Atlantic Ocean, in the Campos and Santos basins off the coasts of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo states respectively. Carioca-Sugar Loaf, Lula (formerly Tupi), and Jupiter make up the primary fields to be developed in very deep waters. Lula alone is thought to contain between 5 and 8 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. Total estimated potential reserves are greater than 120 billion barrels of reserves for the offshore area.

North Sea

The United Kingdom is an important North Sea producer, and its proven oil reserves of some 3 billion barrels are the largest in the European Union. The supergiant Forties field, identified in 1970, was the second commercial discovery in the North Sea following Norway’s supergiant Ekofisk in 1969. Crude oil production, which peaked in the late 1990s, has declined to less than half of its peak level, however, and Britain, once a net oil exporter, is now a net oil importer.

The broader North Sea, however, is under potential rejuvenation, similar to mature assets elsewhere in the world. The original Ekofisk is expanding again after 40 years of production. In 2011 the operating partners were given approval by Norway to develop and manage Ekofisk South and Eldfisk II, which increases reserves recovery by more than 470 million barrels. Of the five countries with divided interests in the North Sea, Norway holds the most recoverable reserves. In addition, it has the most recent giant field discovery, the Johan Sverdrup, 2010. The field has an estimated 1.7 to 3.3 billion barrels total reserves.

Joseph P. RivaGordon I. AtwaterPriscilla G. McLeroyThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica