The Top 10 Oil-Producing Countries

Posted by Quinn Wonderling on July 18, 2011 at 2:42 pm

An oil rig in Russia, which overtook Saudi Arabia as the world's number one oil producer two years ago. (image: tehrantimes.com)

This isn’t breaking news, since the top oil producing countries in the world have the most natural stores of oil and don’t change very often. However, fluctuation in output from any of these countries can affect the heating oil and gas prices that affect our everyday lives. Staying apprised of news and developments in these nations, from political upheaval to the discovery of new supplies, could be useful to heating oil consumers. So, here’s a refresher:

1. Russia produces 9.5 million barrels of oil every day. That’s around 12% of the world’s oil. Though they export slightly less oil than Saudi Arabia, fuel enthusiasts might be interested to know Russia is also the world’s largest exporter of natural gas.

2. Saudi Arabia produces 8.3 million barrels each day. The country contains approximately 100 major oil and gas fields, and is the world’s top oil exporter.

3. The United States is better known as the world’s number one consumer of oil, but the country also produces 5.4 million barrels a day. The U.S. is still struggling in the aftermath of the devastating BP oil spill off the Gulf Coast.

4. Iran produces 4 million barrels of oil a day, almost 4% of the world’s oil. Iran’s controversial nuclear program has been a source of concern for several countries, but they maintain the goal is to generate electricity with low-enriched uranium.

5. China produces 3.8 million barrels of oil every day. But, like the United States, they don’t even make the list of top 20 oil exporters and also experienced a catastrophic oil spill last year when a pipeline exploded.

6. Mexico produces 2.6 million barrels of oil each day. The country is still doing damage control from last year’s pipeline explosion that killed 13 children in San Martin Texmelucan.

7. Canada also produces 2.6 million barrels a day. Exportation could increase with the country’s development of tar sand extraction, but so far environmental concerns have prevented U.S. lawmakers from approving a huge pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

8. The United Arab Emirates produce 2.4 million barrels of oil daily, though they have the sixth largest oil reserves in the world. Climatically sunny, UAE is said to be looking into developing renewable energy sources, especially solar power.

9. Iraq produces 2.4 million barrels every day. The unofficial birthplace of OPEC, Iran continued to help meet world oil demands despite years of war, upheaval and sanctions.

10. Kuwait produces 2.4 million barrels of oil a day. The country has the fifth largest oil reserves in the world, which started being discovered and explored in the late 1930s.