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

The world's proved oil reserves total 236 billion barrels (last comprehensive global assessment, 2020 vintage, Energy Institute / BP Statistical Review). Divided by current world production, that is a runway of roughly 7.6 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 2020 reserves to CURRENT EIA production.

Largest holders

#CountryReserves (bn bbl)ShareRunway (yrs)
1Venezuela41.417.6%103.2
2Saudi Arabia40.617.3%16.8
3Canada22.99.8%12.4
4Iran21.59.2%16
5Iraq19.88.4%39.6
6Russia14.76.3%4.1
7Kuwait13.85.9%66.5
8United Arab Emirates13.35.7%13.9
9United States9.44%1.8
10Libya6.62.8%13.1
11Nigeria52.1%8.5
12Kazakhstan4.11.7%5.2

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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