Featured Figures
Global Oil Production
The highlight of 2017 was the recovery in oil prices, which averaged $54.2 per barrel in 2017 versus $43.7 per barrel in 2016, the first annual increase since 2012.
Oil prices were lifted by the success of the agreements signed between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and certain non-OPEC countries, such as Russia. In effect since the end of 2016, renewed in 2017 and also applicable in 2018, the agreements have introduced oil production quotas. The collapse in oil production in Venezuela (down 11.6%), mainly due to ongoing political unrest, inadvertently boosted barrel prices.
Oil production in the United States was once again buoyed by shale oil, whose sustained production has become a structural phenomenon that does not rely on fluctuations in barrel prices.
Following a fall of 50% between 2015 and 2016, investment in exploration and production grew 4% between 2016 and 2017.
Global Oil Production (in thousands of barrels/day)
| Country | 2016 | 2017 | Change 2017 over 2016 | Share of Global Production |
| United States | 12,366 | 13,057 | 5.6% | 14.1% |
| Saudi Arabia | 12,402 | 11,951 | -3.6% | 12.9% |
| Russia | 11,269 | 11,257 | -0.1% | 12.2% |
| Iran | 4,602 | 4,982 | 8.2% | 5.4% |
| Canada | 4,470 | 3,831 | 8.1% | 5.2% |
| Iraq | 4,423 | 4,520 | 2.2% | 4.9% |
| United Arab Emirates | 4,020 | 3,935 | -2.1% | 4.2% |
| China | 3,999 | 3,846 | -3.8% | 4.2% |
| Kuwait | 3,145 | 3,025 | -3.8% | 3.3% |
| Brazil | 2,608 | 2,734 | 4.8% | 3.7% |
| Mexico | 2,456 | 2,224 | -9.4% | 2.4% |
| Venezuela | 2,387 | 2,110 | -11.6% | 2.3% |
| Nigeria | 1,903 | 1,988 | 4.5% | 2.1% |
| Norway | 1,995 | 1,969 | -1.3% | 2.1% |
| Qatar | 1,970 | 1,916 | -2.7% | 2.1% |
| Kazakhstan | 1,655 | 1,835 | 10.8% | 2.0% |
| Angola | 1,755 | 1,674 | -4.6% | 1.8% |
| Rest of the World | 14,598 | 14,795 | 1.35% | 15% |
| Total World | 92,023 | 92,649 | 0.7% | 100.0% |
Source: BP Statistical Review 2018