“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 years left of oil reserves is calculated based on the proven reserves and the annual production volume. Any change in that volume will change the number of years left. The most years left of proven reserves has Venezuela with 885, followed by Yemen (548 years) and Suriname (548 years), Georgia (479 years) and the Philippines (304 years). Chile (261 years), Slovakia (247 years), Syria (196 years), Iran (134 years) and South Sudan (130 years) complete the Top 10.
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.
