The All-Star Roster of Oil Producing Countries!

Posted by Josh Garrett on February 25, 2011 at 5:36 pm

German oil company Wintershall's production facility in Libya, the world's 17th-largest producer of crude oil. (image: AFP/Getty images)

This week, the Associated Press compiled a list of the top 20 oil-producing nations in the world based on 2009 statistics from the EIA.

The Huffington Post put together a nifty little slide show of the world’s biggest oil gushers, and it’s worth a quick click-through. Now is of course a great time to educate yourself on where most of the world’s oil comes from, as political turmoil in Libya (just the 17th-biggest oil pumper in the world) drove crude and heating oil to post historically large price increases this week.

It’s important to remember that the list covers the biggest producers of crude oil, not the biggest exporters—that’s why Saudi Arabia comes in at #2, despite the fact that most Americans would place it at the top of the list. The list holds some other surprises, but here are some highlights (spoiler alert!): number 20 is Azerbaijan…which is in fact a country. Our hockey-loving northern neighbor, Canada (which is also the top exporter of oil to the US), is #7. And our old frienemies the Russians top the list, producing 9.5 million barrels of crude per day.

So check out the slide show and get ready to drop some factoids on the next friend or acquaintance that complains about rising heating oil or gasoline prices without knowing where their fuel originally comes from.