Production and consumption statistics of oil and gas

Oil

It comes as no surprise, that the principal consumer countries are the developed countries in North America, Europe and Asia. The champions of oil consumption: the United States. With a little less than 5% of total world population, they consume a quarter of all the oil produced each year. And their consumption is not slowing down: +16 % in the 10 years from 1993 to 2003, approximately the world average.

Among the developed countries, we have, on the one hand, the high-consumption-per- inhabitant countries (the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium) and on the other hand the countries with more reasonable consumption habits, like the major European countries, where each inhabitant consumes on average half as much oil as in the high per inhabitant consumption countries.

The principal oil producer countries in 2003 were the following:

* Member countries of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
(1) Since 1989

Until now, it has been possible for the increase in oil consumption to be compensated by an equivalent increase in production, even if certain tensions are starting to appear, as indicated by the increase in crude prices in 2004/2005.
The countries which have made the biggest efforts in terms of production over the last 10 years have not been those belonging to OPEC (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries), which, with 80% of world reserves, produced only 37% of the oil extracted world-wide in 2003. Overall, OPEC production has even slightly decreased. There are two main reasons for this:

- In 1982, following a very violent reaction to the oil crisis, crude prices decreased substantially. That same year, OPEC decided to introduce its quota policy: that is to say, to allocate to each of its members crude production volumes that could not be exceeded; the aim being to control extraction and hence prices and thus to preserve reserves for future generations. Overall, this policy has worked efficiently. It has allowed OPEC to dig less into its reserves than the non-OPEC countries, whilst ensuring relative price stability.

- Some OPEC countries possess very large reserves, in particular those on the Arabian Peninsula together with Iraq, but their production capacities have changed very little over the last 20 years. Increasing capacity would require very heavy investment, which, for the moment, has not been undertaken. As a result, for most of these countries, their maximum production year was at the end of the 1990’s.

Conversely, exploration and development of new fields has significantly progressed in several non-OPEC zones (around the Caspian Sea, in the Atlantic deeps of Brazil and Angola, …).

Gas

As for oil, the major gas consumers are the developed countries, as well as a number of developing countries that possess a significant production capacity and a large population (Iran, Egypt, Uzbekistan …).

The main gas producing countries in 2003 were the following: