World petroleum reserves — who holds the oil, and how many years are left

The world's proved oil reserves total 264 billion barrels (last comprehensive global assessment, 2021 vintage, Energy Institute / BP Statistical Review). Divided by current world production, that is a runway of roughly 8.5 years at today's extraction rate — the classic R/P ratio, a mechanical arithmetic rather than a prediction, since reserves grow with discovery, technology and price. The interactive map colors every holder; clicking a country charts its 40-year reserve history, and each country's runway joins the 2021 reserves to CURRENT EIA production.

Largest holders

#CountryReserves (bn bbl)ShareRunway (yrs)
1Venezuela48.317.8%120.3
2Saudi Arabia41.115.1%17.1
3Iran33.212.2%24.7
4Canada27.110%14.7
5Iraq23.18.5%46.1
6Kuwait16.15.9%77.6
7United Arab Emirates15.65.7%16.3
8Russia12.74.7%3.5
9Libya7.72.8%15.3
10United States7.52.8%1.5
11Nigeria5.92.2%9.9
12Kazakhstan4.81.8%6.1

Why an inflation site tracks reserves: they are the ceiling on the supply side of the oil balance, and a short world runway is the structural argument for a higher long-run oil price — which passes into pump prices, freight and the CPI energy component within weeks. Sources: EI/BP via Our World in Data (reserves), EIA (production), Natural Earth (map geometry) — free and re-checkable.

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