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pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil.Petroleum (Latin Petroleum derived from Greek language πέτρα (Latin petra) - rock + έλαιον (Latin oleum) - oil) or crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid found in formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons (mostly alkanes) of various lengths. The approximate length range is C5H12 to C18H38. Any shorter hydrocarbons are considered natural gas or natural gas liquids, while long-chain hydrocarbons are more viscous, and the longest chains are paraffin. In its naturally occurring form, it may contain other nonmetallic elements such as sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Manual of Petroleum Measurement Standards (MPMS), by the American Petroleum Institute It is usually black or dark brown (although it may be yellowish or even greenish) but varies greatly in appearance, depending on its composition. Crude oil may also be found in semi-solid form mixed with sand, as in the Athabasca oil sands in Canada, where it may be referred to as crude bitumen.

Petroleum is used mostly, by volume, for producing fuel oil and gasoline (petrol), both important "primary energy" sources. IEA Key World Energy Statistics84% by volume of the hydrocarbons present in petroleum is converted into energy-rich fuels (petroleum-based fuels), including gasoline, diesel, jet, heating, and other fuel oils, and liquefied petroleum gas. "Crude oil is made into different fuels"

Due to its high energy density, easy transportability and oil reserves, it has become the world's most important source of energy since the mid-1950s. Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics; the 16% not used for energy production is converted into these other materials.

Petroleum is found in porosity rock formations in the upper stratum of some areas of the Earth's crust (geology). There is also petroleum in tar sands. Known oil reserves are typically estimated at around 1.2 trillion barrels without oil sands EIA reserves estimates, or 3.74 trillion barrels with oil sands CERA report on total world oil. However, oil production from oil sands is currently severely limited. Consumption is currently around 84 million barrels per day, or 3.6 trillion liters per year. Because of reservoir engineering difficulties, recoverable oil reserves are significantly less than total oil-in-place. At current consumption levels, and assuming that oil will be consumed only from reservoirs, known reserves would be gone around 2039, potentially leading to a global energy crisis. However, this ignores any new discoveries, rapidly increasing consumption in China & India, using oil sands, using synthetic petroleum, and other factors which may extend or reduce this estimate.

Formation Chemistry , a hydrocarbon found in petroleum, lines are single bonds, black spheres are carbon, white spheres are hydrogenThe chemical structure of petroleum is composed of hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. These different hydrocarbon chemicals are separated by distillation at an oil refinery to produce gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, and other hydrocarbons. The general formula for these alkanes is CnH2n+2. For example 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (isooctane), widely used in gasoline, has a chemical formula of C8H18 and it reacts with oxygen exothermically: Heat of Combustion of Fuels

2\mathrm{C}_8 \mathrm{H}_{18(l)} + 25\mathrm{O}_{2(g)} \rightarrow \; 16\mathrm{CO}_{2(g)} + 18\mathrm{H}_2 \mathrm{O}_{(l)} + 10.86 \ \mathrm{MJ}

Incomplete combustion of petroleum or gasoline results in production of potentially toxic byproducts. Too little oxygen results in carbon monoxide. Combustion in air (which contains mostly nitrogen) results in nitric oxides. For example:

\mathrm{C}_8 \mathrm{H}_{18(l)} + 12.5\mathrm{O}_{2(g)} + \mathrm{N}_{2(g)} \rightarrow \; 6\mathrm{CO}_{2(g)} + 2\mathrm{CO}_{(g)} +2\mathrm{NO}_{(g)} + 9\mathrm{H}_2 \mathrm{O}_{(l)} + \text{heat}

Formation of petroleum occurs in a variety of mostly endothermic reactions in high temperature and/or pressure. For example, a kerogen may break down into hydrocarbons of different lengths. Petroleum Study

Biogenic theory Most geologys view crude oil and natural gas as the product of diagenesis of ancient organic compound over geologic time scale. Oil is formed from the preserved remains of prehistory zooplankton and algae which have been settled to the sea (or lake) bottom in large quantities under anoxic sea water. Terrestrial plants, on the other hand, tend to form coal. Over geologic time scale this organic compound matter, mixed with mud, is buried under heavy layers of sediment. The resulting high levels of heat and pressure cause the organic matter to chemically change during diagenesis, first into a waxy material known as kerogen which is found in various oil shales around the world, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons in a process known as catagenesis (geology).

Geologists often refer to an "oil window" which is the temperature range that oil forms in—below the minimum temperature oil remains trapped in the form of kerogen, and above the maximum temperature the oil is converted to natural gas through the process of thermal cracking. Though this happens at different depths in different locations around the world, a 'typical' depth for the oil window might be 4–6 km. Note that even if oil is formed at extreme depths, it may be trapped at much shallower depths, even if it is not formed there (the Athabasca Oil Sands is one example).

Because most hydrocarbons are buoyancy than rock or water, these often migrate upward through adjacent rock layers until they they either reach the surface or become trapped beneath impermeable rocks, within porous rocks called oil reservoir. However, the process is not straightforward since it is influenced by underground water flows, and oil may migrate hundreds of kilometres horizontally or even short distances downward before becoming trapped in a reservoir. Concentration of hydrocarbons in a trap forms an oil field, from which the liquid can be extracted by drilling and pumping.

Three conditions must be present for oil reservoirs to form: first, a source rock rich in organic material buried deep enough for subterranean heat to cook it into oil; second, a porous and permeability (fluid) reservoir rock for it to accumulate in; and last a cap rock (seal) or other mechanism that prevents it from escaping to the surface. Within these reservoirs fluids will typically organize themselves like a three-layer cake with with a layer of water below the oil layer and a layer of gas above it, although the different layers vary in size between reservoirs.

The vast majority of oil that has been produced by the earth has long ago escaped to the surface and been biodegradation by oil-eating bacteria. Oil companies are looking for the small fraction that has been trapped by this rare combination of circumstances. Oil sands are reservoirs of partially biodegraded oil still in the process of escaping, but contain so much migrating oil that, although most of it has escaped, vast amounts are still present - more than can be found in conventional oil reservoirs. On the other hand, oil shales are source rocks that have never been buried deep enough to convert their trapped kerogen into oil.

The reactions that produce oil and natural gas are often modeled as first order breakdown reactions, where kerogen is broken down to oil and natural gas by a set of parallel reactions, and oil eventually breaks down to natural gas by another set of reactions. The first set was originally patented in 1694 under British Crown Patent No. 330 covering,"a way to extract and make great quantityes of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone."The latter set is regularly used in petrochemical plants and oil refineries.

Abiogenic theory The idea of abiogenic petroleum origin was championed in the Western world by astronomer Thomas Gold based on thoughts from Russia, mainly on studies of Nikolai Kudryavtsev. The idea proposes that hydrocarbons of purely geological origin exist in the planet. Hydrocarbons are less dense than aqueous pore fluids, and are proposed to migrate upward through deep fracture networks. extremophile, rock-dwelling microorganism-forms are proposed to be in part responsible for the biomarkers found in petroleum.

This theory is a minority opinion, especially amongst Western geologists; no Western oil companies are currently known to explore for oil based on this theory, although Russia is known to have applied this theory with some success.

Classification The oil industry classifies "crude" by the location of its origin (e.g., "West Texas Intermediate, WTI" or "Brent") and often by its API gravity or viscosity ("Light crude oil", "intermediate" or "Heavy crude oil"); refiners may also refer to it as "sweet crude oil," which means it contains relatively little sulfur, or as "sour crude oil," which means it contains substantial amounts of sulfur and requires more refining in order to meet current product specifications. Each crude oil has unique molecular characteristics which are understood by the use of Crude oil assay in petroleum laboratories.

barrel (unit)s from an area in which the crude oil's molecular characteristics have been determined and the oil has been classified are used as pricing Benchmark (crude oil) throughout the world. These references are known as Crude oil benchmarks:



Means of production Extraction The most common method of obtaining petroleum is extracting it from oil wells found in oil fields. With improved technologies and higher demand for hydrocarbons various methods are applied in petroleum exploration and development to optimize the recovery of oil and gas. Primary recovery methods are used to extract oil that is brought to the surface by underground pressure, and can generally recover about 20% of the oil present. The natural pressure can come from several different sources; where it is provided by an underlying water layer it is called a water drive reservoir and where it is from the gas cap above it is called gas drive. After the reservoir pressure has depleted to the point that the oil is no longer brought to the surface, secondary recovery methods draw another 5 to 10% of the oil in the well to the surface. In a water drive oil field, water can be injected into the water layer below the oil, and in a gas drive field it can be injected into the gas cap above to repressurize the reservoir. Finally, when secondary oil recovery methods are no longer viable, tertiary recovery methods reduce the viscosity of the oil in order to bring more to the surface. These generally involve the injection of heat and/or solvents.

Alternative methods During the last Oil price increases of 2004-2006, other alternatives to producing oil gained importance. The best known such methods involve extracting oil from sources such as oil shale or tar sands. These resources are known to exist in large quantities; however, extracting the oil at low cost without negatively impacting the environment remains a challenge.

It is also possible to transform natural gas or coal into oil (or, more precisely, the various hydrocarbons found in oil). The best-known such method is the Fischer-Tropsch process. It was a concept pioneered in Nazi Germany when International trades of petroleum were restricted due to war and Germany found a method to extract oil from coal. It was known as Ersatz ("substitute" in German language), and accounted for nearly half the total oil used in World War II by Germany. However, the process was used only as a last resort as naturally occurring oil was much cheaper. As crude oil prices increase, the cost of coal to oil conversion becomes comparatively cheaper. The method involves converting high ash coal into synthetic oil in a multi-stage process. Ideally, a ton of coal produces nearly 200 liters (1.25 bbl, 52 US gallons) of crude, with by-products ranging from tar to Abundance of the chemical elements.

Currently, two companies have commercialised their Fischer-Tropsch technology. Shell in Bintulu, Malaysia, uses natural gas as a feedstock, and produces primarily low-sulfur diesel fuels. Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis MalaysiaSasol Sasol corporate websitein South Africa uses coal as a feedstock, and produces a variety of synthetic petroleum products.

The process is today used in South Africa to produce most of the country's diesel fuel from coal by the company Sasol. The process was used in South Africa to meet its energy needs during its isolation under Apartheid. This process has received renewed attention in the quest to produce low sulfur diesel fuel in order to minimize the environmental impact from the use of diesel engines.

An alternative method of converting coal into petroleum is the Karrick process, which was pioneered in the 1930s in the United States. It uses high temperatures in the absence of ambient air, to distill the short-chain hydrocarbons of petroleum out of coal.

More recently explored is thermal depolymerization (TDP), a process for the reduction of complex organic materials into light crude oil. Using pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons. This mimics the natural geology processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. In theory, TDP can convert any organic waste into petroleum.

History Petroleum, in some form or other, is not a substance new in the world's history. More than four thousand years ago, according to Herodotus and confirmed by Diodorus Siculus, asphalt was employed in the construction of the walls and towers of Babylon; there were oil pits near Ardericca (near Babylon), and a pitch spring on Zacynthus. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus (river), one of the tributaries of the Euphrates. Ancient Persian Empire tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society.

The earliest known oil wells were drilled in China in 347 CE or earlier. They had depths of up to about and were drilled using drill bit attached to bamboo poles. ASTM timeline of Oil The oil was burned to evaporate brine and produce sodium chloride. By the 10th century, extensive bamboo pipelines connected oil wells with salt springs. The ancient records of China and Japan are said to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting and heating. Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan in the 7th century.

The Middle East petroleum industry was established by the 8th century, when the streets of the newly constructed Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from easily accessible petroleum from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan, to produce naphtha. These fields were described by the geographer Masudi in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Petroleum was Distillation by Persian chemist al-Razi in the 9th century, producing chemicals such as kerosene in the alembic.{{cite book|author=Dr. Kasem Ajram|title=The Miracle of Islam Science|edition=2nd Edition|publisher=Knowledge House Publishers|year=1992|id=ISBN 0-911119-43-4-->(See also: Alchemy (Islam), Islamic science, and Timeline of science and technology in the Islamic world.)

The earliest mention of American petroleum occurs in Sir Walter Raleigh's account of the Trinidad Pitch Lake in 1595; whilst thirty-seven years later, the account of a visit of a Franciscan, Joseph de la Roche d'Allion, to the oil springs of New York was published in Sagard's Histoire du Canada. A Russian traveller, Peter Kalm, in his work on America published in 1748 showed on a map the oil springs of Pennsylvania.

The modern world of petroleum began in 1846 with the discovery of the process of refining kerosene from coal by Nova Scotia's Abraham Pineo Gesner.

Oil sands were mined from 1745 in Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, Alsace under the direction of Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière, by special appointement of Louis XV. History of Pechelbronn oilThe Pechelbronn oil field was active until 1970, and was the birth place of companies like Antar and Schlumberger. The first modern refinery was built there in 1857.

Poland's Ignacy Łukasiewicz improved Gesner's method to develop a means of refining kerosene from the more readily available "rock oil" ("petr-oleum") seeps in 1852 and the first rock oil mine was built in Bóbrka (Krosno), near Krosno in southern Poland in the following year. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world, and Meerzoeff built the first Russian Oil refinery in the mature oil fields at Baku in 1861. At that time Baku produced about 90% of the world's oil.

, 1938.

The first commercial oil well drilled in North America was in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1858, dug by James Miller Williams. The US petroleum industry began with Edwin Drake's drilling of a oil well in 1859, on Oil Creek (Allegheny River) near Titusville, Pennsylvania, for the Seneca Oil Company (originally yielding 25 barrels a day, by the end of the year output was at the rate of 15 barrels).The industry grew slowly in the 1800s, driven by the demand for kerosene and oil lamps. It became a major national concern in the early part of the 20th century; the introduction of the internal combustion engine provided a demand that has largely sustained the industry to this day. Early "local" finds like those in Pennsylvania and Ontario were quickly outpaced by demand, leading to "oil booms" in Texas, Oklahoma, and California.

Early production of crude petroleum in the United States:

By 1910, significant oil fields had been discovered in Canada (specifically, in the province of Ontario), the Dutch East Indies (1885, in Sumatra), Iran (1908, in Masjed Soleiman), Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico, and were being developed at an industrial level.

Even until the mid-1950s, coal was still the world's foremost fuel, but oil quickly took over. Following the 1973 energy crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, there was significant News media coverage of oil supply levels. This brought to light the concern that oil is a limited resource that will eventually run out, at least as an economically viable energy source. At the time, the most common and popular predictions were always quite dire, and when they did not come true, many dismissed all such discussion. The future of petroleum as a fuel remains somewhat controversial. USA Today news (2004) reports that there are 40 years of petroleum left in the ground. Some would argue that because the total amount of petroleum is finite, the dire predictions of the 1970s have merely been postponed. Others argue that technology will continue to allow for the production of cheap hydrocarbons and that the earth has vast sources of unconventional petroleum reserves in the form of tar sands, bitumen fields and oil shale that will allow for petroleum use to continue in the future, with both the Canadian tar sands and United States shale oil deposits representing potential reserves matching existing liquid petroleum deposits worldwide.

Today, about 90% of vehicular fuel needs are met by oil. Petroleum also makes up 40% of total energy consumption in the United States, but is responsible for only 2% of electricity generation. Petroleum's worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals makes it one of the world's most important commodity. Access to it was a major factor in several military conflicts including World War II and the Persian Gulf Wars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The top three oil producing countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States. About 80% of the world's readily accessible reserves are located in the Middle East, with 62.5% coming from the Arab 5: Saudi Arabia (12.5%), UAE, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. However, with today's oil prices, Venezuela has larger reserves than Saudi Arabia due to crude reserves derived from bitumen.

Uses The chemical structure of petroleum is composed of hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. Because of this, petroleum may be taken to oil refinery and the hydrocarbon chemicals separated by distillation and treated by other chemical processes, to be used for a variety of purposes. See Petroleum products.

Fuels

Generaly used in transportation, power plants and heating.

Petroleum vehicles are internal combustion engine vehicles.

Other derivatives Certain types of resultant hydrocarbons may be mixed with other non-hydrocarbons, to create other end products:



Consumption statistics

Image:Hubbert world 2004.png|2004 U.S. government predictions for oil production other than in OPEC and the former Soviet UnionImage:EIA_IEO2006.jpg|World energy consumption, 1980-2030. Source: International Energy Outlook 2006.

Environmental effects

The presence of oil has significant society and Natural environmental impacts, from accidents and routine activities such as seismology exploration, drilling, and generation of pollution wastes not produced by other alternative energies.

Extraction Oil extraction is costly and sometimes environmentally damaging, although Dr. John Hunt (oceanographer) of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution pointed out in a 1981 paper that over 70% of the reserves in the world are associated with visible seeps, and many oil fields are found due to natural leaks. Offshore exploration and extraction of oil disturbs the surrounding marine environment. Waste discharges during the offshore oil and gas activity by Stanislave PatinBut at the same time, offshore oil platforms also form micro-habitats for marine creatures. Extraction may involve dredging, which wikt:stirs up the seabed, killing the sea plants that marine creatures need to survive.

Oil spills

Crude oil and refined fuel Oil spill from tanker (ship) accidents have damaged natural ecosystems in Alaska, the Galapagos Islands, France and many List of oil spills and times in Spain (i.e. Ibiza).

The quantity of oil spilled during accidents has ranged from a few hundred tons to several hundred thousand tons (Atlantic Empress, Amoco Cadiz...). Smaller spills have already proven to have a great impact on ecosystems, such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Global warming Burning oil releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. Per energy unit, oil produces less carbon dioxide than coal, but more than natural gas. However, oil's unique role as a transportation fuel makes reducing its CO2 emissions a particularly thorny problem; amelioration strategies such as carbon sequestering are generally geared for large power plants, not individual vehicles.

Whales It has been argued that the advent of kerosene was one development, which saved the great cetaceans from extinction. How Capitalism Saved the Whales by James S. Robbins, The Freeman, August, 1992.

Alternatives to petroleum Alternatives to petroleum-based vehicle fuels The term alternative propulsion or "alternative methods of propulsion" includes both:

Nowadays, cars can be classified between the next main groups:



The future of petroleum production Hubbert peak theory The Hubbert peak theory (also known as peak oil) is a proposition which predicts that future world petroleum production must inevitably reach a peak and then decline at a similar rate to the rate of increase before the peak as these reserves are exhausted. It also suggests a method to calculate mathematically the timing of this peak, based on past production rates, past discovery rates, and proven oil reserves.

Controversy surrounds the theory for numerous reasons. Past predictions regarding the timing of the global peak have failed, causing a number of observers to disregard the theory. Further, predictions regarding the timing of the peak are highly dependent on the past production and discovery data used in the calculation.

Proponents of peak oil theory also refer as an example of their theory, that when any given oil well produces oil in similar volumes to the amount of water used to obtain the oil, it tends to produce less oil afterwards, leading to the relatively quick exhaustion and/or commercial inviability of the well in question.

The issue can be considered from the point of view of individual regions or of the world as a whole. M. King Hubbert's prediction for when US oil production would peak turned out to be correct, and after this occurred in 1971 - causing the US to lose its excess production capacity - OPEC was finally able to manipulate oil prices, which led to the 1973 oil crisis. Since then, most other countries have also peaked: the United Kingdom's North Sea oil, for example in the late 1990s. China has confirmed that two of its largest producing regions are in decline, and Mexico's national oil company, Pemex, has announced that Cantarell Field, one of the world's largest offshore fields, was expected to peak in 2006, and then decline 14% per annum.

It is difficult to predict the peak oil in any given region (due to the lack of transparency in accounting of global oil reserves New study raises doubts about Saudi oil reserves). Based on available production data, proponents have previously (and incorrectly) predicted the peak for the world to be in years 1989, 1995, or 1995-2000. Some of these predictions date from before the recession of the early 1980s, and the consequent reduction in global consumption, the effect of which was to delay the date of any peak by several years. A new prediction by Goldman Sachs picks 2007 for oil and some time later for natural gas. Just as the 1971 U.S. peak in oil production was only clearly recognized after the fact, a peak in world production will be difficult to discern until production clearly drops off.

Many proponents of the Hubbert peak theory expound the belief that the production peak is imminent, for various reasons. The year 2005 saw a dramatic fall in announced new oil projects coming to production from 2008 onwards - in order to avoid the peak, these new projects would have to not only make up for the depletion of current fields, but increase total production annually to meet increasing demand.

The year 2005 also saw substantial increases in Petroleum#Pricing due to a number of circumstances, including war and political instability. Petroleum#Pricing rose to new highs. Analysts such as Kenneth Deffeyes{{cite book|author=Deffeyes, Kenneth|title=Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert;s Peak|edition=1st Edition|publisher=Hill and Wang|year=2005|id=ISBN 0-8090-2957-X-->argue that these price increases indicate a general lack of spare capacity, and the price fluctuations can be interpreted as a sign that peak oil is imminent.

Pricing

International market

Petroleum efficiency among countries There are two main ways to measure the petroleum efficiency of countries: by population or by GDP (gross domestic product). This metric is important in the global debate over oil consumption/energy consumption/climate change because it takes social and economic considerations into account when scoring countries on their oil consumption/energy consumption/climate change goals. Nations such as China and India with large populations tend to promote the use of population based metrics, while nations with large economies such as the United States would tend to promote the GDP based metric.{]|3.75|-||United Kingdom|3.31|-||[Austria|2.65|-||[Germany|2.71|-||[Italy|2.52|-||[DRC|2.34|-||[Australia|1.96|-||[Bangladesh|1.87|-||[United States|1.59|-||[World|1.39|-||[Canada|1.07|-||[Ethiopia|1.00|-||[Philippines|0.99|-||[Taiwan|0.94|-||[Nigeria|0.93|-||[Myanmar|0.86|-||[Russia|0.71|-||[Vietnam|0.53|-||[Saudi Arabia|0.41|-||[Singapore|0.35|-|}{| style="text-align: right;" border="1" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable"! Selected Nations! Oil Efficiency (barrel/person/year)|-||[DRC|0.37|-||[Bangladesh|0.73|-||[Pakistan|2.17|-||[India|2.70|-||[Philippines|4.63|-||[China|7.48|-||[Turkey|11.67|-||[Poland|12.55|-||[Thailand|17.66|-||[Mexico|21.56|-||[European Union|30.18|-||[Germany|32.43|-||[Italy|34.01|-||[Spain|34.64|-||[Sweden|41.68|-||[Japan|42.22|-||[South Korea|52.06|-||[Belgium|68.81|-||[Canada|75.08|-||[Singapore|178.45|-|}

(Note: The figure for Singapore is skewed because of its smallpopulation compared with its large oil refining capacity.Most of this oil is sent to other countries.)

Top petroleum-producing countries Source: Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government.

For oil reserves by country, see Oil reserves#Oil reserves by country.



In order of amount produced in 2004 in MMBarrel (unit)/Day & MegaLitre/d:{| style="text-align: right;" border="1" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable"!#!Producing Nation for 2004!(×106bbl/d)!(×10³Cubic metre/d)|-|1||Saudi Arabia (OPEC)]|9.27|1,474|-|3||United States 1] (OPEC)|4.09|650|-|5||Mexico 1] 1|3.62|576|-|7||Norway 1] 1,3|3.14|499|-|9||Venezuela (OPEC) 1] (OPEC)|2.76|439|-|11||Kuwait (OPEC)] (OPEC)|2.51|399|-|13||United Kingdom 1] (OPEC) ²|2.03|323|}1 Oil reserves#Countries that have already passed their production peak

² Though still a member, Iraq has not been included in production figures since 1998

³ Canada has the world's second largest oil reserves when tar sands are included, and is the leading source of U.S. imports, averaging 1.7 MMbbl/d in April 2006 .

Top petroleum-exporting countries In order of amount exported in 2003:
  • Saudi Arabia (OPEC)
  • Russia
  • Norway 1
  • Iran (OPEC)
  • United Arab Emirates (OPEC)
  • Venezuela (OPEC) 1
  • Kuwait (OPEC)
  • Nigeria (OPEC)
  • Mexico 1
  • Algeria (OPEC)
  • Libya (OPEC) 1
    • 1 Oil reserves#Countries that have already passed their production peak

    Note that the USA consumes almost all of its own production, while the UK has recently become a net-importer rather than net-exporter.

    Total world production/consumption (as of 2005) is approximately 84 million barrels per day.

    See also: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

    Top petroleum-consuming countries {| style="text-align: right;" border="1" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable"!#!Consuming Nation!(bbl/day)!(m³/day)|-|1||United States|20,030,000|3,184,516|-|2||China|6,391,000|1,016,088|-|3||Japan|5,578,000|886,831|-|4||Russia|2,800,000|445,164|-|5||Germany|2,677,000|425,609|-|6||India|2,320,000|368,851|-|7||Canada|2,300,000|365,671|-|8||South Korea|2,061,000|327,673|-|9||France|2,060,000|327,514|-|10||Italy|1,874,000|297,942|-|11||Saudi Arabia|1,775,000|282,202|-|12||Mexico|1,752,000|278,546|-|13||United Kingdom|1,722,000|273,776|-|14||Brazil|1,610,000|255,970|}Source: CIA World Factbook

    Top petroleum-importing countries {| style="text-align: right;" border="1" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable"!#!Importing Nation!(bbl/day)!(m³/day)|-|1||United States|13,150,000|2,790,683|-|2||Japan|5,449,000|866,322|-|3||China|3,226,000|512,893|-|4||Netherlands|2,284,000|363,127|-|5||France|2,281,000|362,650|-|6||South Korea|2,263,000|359,788|-|7||Italy|2,158,000|343,095|-|8||Germany|2,135,000|339,438|-|9||India|2,090,000|332,283|-|10||Spain|1,582,000|251,518|-|11||United Kingdom|1,084,000|172,342|-|12||Belgium|1,042,000|165,665|-|13||Canada|963,000|153,105|-|14||Turkey|616,500|98,016|}Source: CIA World Factbook

    Top petroleum non-producing and consuming countries {| style="text-align: right;" border="1" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable"!#!Consuming Nation!(bbl/day)!(m³/day)|-|1||Japan|5,578,000|886,831|-|2||Germany|2,677,000|425,609|-|3||India|2,320,000|368,851|-|4||South Korea|2,061,000|327,673|-|5||France|2,060,000|327,514|-|6||Italy|1,874,000|297,942|-|7||Spain|1,537,000|244,363|-|8||Netherlands|946,700|150,513|}Source : CIA World Factbook

    Writers covering the petroleum industry

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    Crude Oil



     
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