“You’ve stuck a lot of straws into the Earth, and it is a finite number. So, the one thing I can almost promise you is that oil will sell for a lot more someday.” Warren Buffett, 2011
The most commonly accepted definition of proven reserves of oil and gas is “ The quantities of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids which geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in the future from known oil and gas reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. They represent strictly technical judgments, and are not knowingly influenced by attitudes of conservatism or optimism,” developed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Those proven reserves include both developed and undeveloped reserves.
The biggest proven oil reserves in 2021 were located in Venezuela (304.000 million barrels), followed by Saudi Arabia (267.000), Iran (209.000), Iraq (201.000) and Canada (170.000). United Arabian Emirates (113.000), Kuwait (109.000), Russia (80.000), USA (74.000) and Libya (50.000) complete the Top 10.
