Did you know that, as of 2023, there are 1.6 trillion barrels of proven recoverable oil reserves remaining, and that Venezuela is the country that has the world's largest oil reserves?

Around 165 years ago, the world started extracting crude oil natural resource — for plastics, gasoline, asphalt and many other products — far faster than it could ever be replenished. This has led to aroused curiosity of oil running out overtime. For decades, industry experts have said there are around 50 years of oil left, based on known reserves.

As of 2016, it is estimated that the world consumes 35,442,913,090 barrels of oil, equivalent to 97,103,871 barrels per day, bpd. Global oil consumption per capita is 5 barrels of oil (197 gallons) per person yearly (based on the 2016 world population of 7,558,554,526 people) or 0.5 gallons per capita per day.

Globally, around 1.6 trillion barrels of recoverable oil remain, according to a 2023 survey by Rystad Energy. There's also recoverable oil that haven't yet been discovered. Although in 2012, the U.S. Geological Survey put the estimate at 565 billion barrels. This figure hasn't changed much because of how it is calculated. The estimate of known reserves increased because new fields and the amount of time left haven't changed much, because the world is using up new oil about as fast as they're finding it.

In reality, planet Earth will never completely run out of oil, because some of the oil is in inaccessible places like Antarctica, and some may be made so deep inside the Earth such that it is difficult to even quantify it, let alone get to it. But at some point, this equilibrium will shift. That means we could have enough oil for far longer than the longstanding 50-year projection.

As the world moves away from oil as an energy source, thanks to the shift to electric vehicles, according to BP's 2023 Energy Outlook Report, demand will likely plateau. In October 2023, for instance, the International Energy Agency said it expects oil use to have peaked by 2030, declining after that.

Meanwhile, here are the Top 10 countries richest in crude oil.

1️⃣ VENEZUELA
Venezuela is the country with the world's largest oil reserves, pegged at over 300 billion barrels. However, sanctions from the United States, a chronic economic crisis, and corruption have combined to prevent the country from making the most of its oil riches.

2️⃣ SAUDI ARABIA
The world's second-largest producer and OPEC's largest, Saudi Arabia, has proven reserves of some 267 billion barrels. Production was a little over 9 million barrels daily in 2021, which rose to 11.5 million bpd in 2022.

3️⃣ CANADA
Canada is home to 171 billion barrels of crude oil, most of it in the form of bitumen in oil sands: as much as 166.3 billion of the total is oil sands, concentrated in Alberta. That's a tenth of the world's total oil reserves.

4️⃣ IRAN
Iran has oil reserves of 208.6 billion barrels and produces around 2.39 million barrels daily. Of this, it only exports a little over 760,000 bpd, per OPEC data. The reason for the substantial gap between reserves, production, and exports are, of course, U.S. sanctions that the former administration re-imposed on Iran.

5️⃣ IRAQ
Iraq, OPEC's number-two producer, is home to proven reserves of some 145 billion barrels, with production at around 4.5 million barrels daily. Exports average 3.4 million bpd but, like Kuwait, Iraq has big plans.

6️⃣ RUSSIA
Russia has some 80 billion barrels in proven crude oil reserves, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and as of this month, produces around 9.4 million barrels daily, excluding condensates.

7️⃣ UAE
OPEC's third-biggest oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, holds an estimated 111 billion barrels of crude oil and produces an average of 2.7 million barrels of it daily. Of this, it exports 2.3 million barrels daily, according to OPEC data.

8️⃣ KUWAIT
Kuwait has some 101.5 billion barrels in proven oil reserves, according to OPEC. The tiny Gulf state produces between 2.4 million and 2.67 million barrels of oil daily and exports some 1.7 million bpd.

9️⃣ USA
Sources estimate the U.S. crude oil reserves differently. Some, such as the Energy Information Administration (EIA), put these at a little under 36 billion barrels and count condensate reserves separately.

🔟 LIBYA
The North African country is estimated to have some 48.3 billion barrels of crude oil in reserves. Yet it is a relatively minor producer, with its daily average at around 1.2 million barrels.

SOURCES: Live Science | Worldometer | Oil Price

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