Saudi reserves top spot for oil

Saudi Arabia has moved up to the top spot in terms of proven, probable and expected reserves, beating out the US and Russia with 73 billion barrels of recoverable oil out of the world’s estimated 2.2 trillion barrels, Rystad Energy said on Tuesday.

Although Saudi moved forward, the Rystad Energy Annual Review pointed out that if NGLs were included in the estimation, the US would beat Saudi Arabia’s reserves by 50 billion barrels.

The world’s total reserves rose by 29 billion barrels in 2016, which is 73 times the current annual global production rate. Kazakhstan and the US were the only other countries to raise their reserves, the report said. Unconventional oil took up 30% of the total reserves, while offshore formations held 33%.

The report stated that recoverable oil will require prices to sit at USD 80 per barrel or higher for oil companies to profit from E&P operations.

While BP estimated this month that the planet’s reserves stood at 1.7 trillion barrels at the end of 2016, the projection used only proven reserves.

“Public sources of global oil reserves, such as the BP Statistical Review, are based on official reporting from national authorities, who often report resources according to diverse and opaque sets of standards,” Rystad said.

The Rystad Energy Annual Review uses the Society of Petroleum Engineers standards to estimate its statistics.