Some interesting oil industry statistics

©1997-2009 Gibson Consulting

Perspective US Gov't
Index US imports - from where? US imports - volume US exports Largest exporters Largest importers Iraq By company
Costs Largest refiners US Capacity Capacity by state Product imports Market share Transportation
Leading countries US Production Leading US States Largest world oil fields Largest US oil fields Largest world gas fields US Production Peak Production Peak Number of wells US - Wells drilled/producing US - shut-in wells
How many gallons? How much gasoline? How much plastic? Production costs Finding costs US Gov't profits Uses of oil
US - oil US - gasoline World Changes By sector US vs China
World US US - Bakken US - shut-in wells Peak Oil Drill Baby Drill Largest world oil fields Largest US oil fields Largest world gas fields
Largest that don't use imported oil Profits Seven Sisters
Who sets the price? Price history Factors Why so high? Gasoline price breakdown Historic change in pricing basis
How much in a barrel? Retailer Profits No. of stations US Price breakdown Sales per station No Middle East oil Price in other countries
Producers Importers Companies Oil Fields Gas Fields Reserves Profits
Exports to Japan ANWR
Drill Baby Drill Salvation in Canada? US - Bakken Essay
Made of dinosaurs? Why so much in the Mid East? Who owns it? Abiotic oil
Miscellaneous Myths Alternatives
Finding costs Hot areas Bakken Time to bring onstream
How many gallons in a barrel? How much gasoline from a barrel? Where to buy gas not from Mid East? Who sets the price of oil? Why does Alaska export oil to Japan?

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Best source for up-to-date data: EIA

Gulf of Mexico wells and production - May 2010


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In the time it takes most people to read this sentence, the world will have used up (forever) about 8,000 barrels of oil - 336,000 gallons; at 1000 barrels per second, it's going fast.
Great Article
      OIL IMPORT QUIZ
What country provides the single largest volume of the US's oil imports (2001-2009)?

 


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You are welcome to use any of the information on this Gibson Consulting Oil Statistics page - but it IS copyrighted and wholesale copying and re-posting as your own information will not be tolerated. No one pays for this compilation but me - and those generous folks who support it using the PayPal button above! Thanks! If it is helpful to you, credit would be appreciated! (And please also credit the original data providers, usually the EIA.) No absolute guarantees as to accuracy -- but every effort has been made to be reasonably correct. Corrections appreciated! - but please explore for the answer first!


Essay: What's the Deal With Oil?

Why don't I have everything updated using the most recent data? Because I have to make a living, and with all the changes going on I'd do nothing but update this page. All the data are out there for anyone to find - I don't have a secret source. Explore the EIA Web Site.


A note about numbers:

You'll see statistics like those posted here that may be substantially different. You need to be aware of what you are comparing. Is it just crude oil production, importation, or consumption? Or is it crude + "natural gas liquids"? Or maybe it includes petroleum products, such as refined gasoline. Numbers do change from month to month and year to year, of course. Are you looking at Russia, or the Former Soviet Union (which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and other independent nations)? Is the percentage you find the percentage of consumption, or the percentage of imports? There are many, many different ways of looking at data. Just be aware.

Personal note about bias: When this page started, in 1996, it really was mostly "interesting oil statistics" - largest fields and so on. It has evolved, as my personal interests and those of the page's viewers have evolved, to be a hodgepodge of information about a lot of complex things. I have tried VERY HARD to make this page be objective and free of bias - but it is done by a human being, and it is impossible to remove all my bias, even though as a scientist (geologist) I try to do that.

By way of background, in the late 1990s I really thought the "peak oil" people were crazy, or at least "doomsayers" and pessimists. Oil exploration people (like me) tend to be optimistic - you have to be, since you fail so often. But in the past 5 to 7 years, I've come to feel, largely through creating this compilation, that the "peak oil" people are a lot closer to right than are the "sweetness-and-light-and-nothing-is-really-wrong" crowd. I don't KNOW that - but based on what I can see and read with my own eyes, there is little question that Americans' oil guzzling will bring us to a fall, likely sooner rather than later. So, there, now you know my bias. Read this page with that in mind - but please also know that I still am trying very hard to keep it as objective as possible.

—Dick Gibson

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Compiled by Dick Gibson, Gibson Consulting, 301 N. Crystal St., Butte, MT 59701

Want to know more?
Gibson Consulting recommends: Read The Prize, by Daniel Yergin.


©1997-2009 Gibson Consulting
Background image of drilling well in Utah in 1981 © 2000 by Dick Gibson