Which Country Is the Largest Oil Producer in the World – the USA, Russia or Saudi Arabia: The Question of Measurement – What and How

Abstract

Current and past statuses and dynamics of oil production and methods of oil measurements in different countries – under different temperatures and preassures – are considered and analyzed. The author uses methods of comparative and systematic analyses, which are implemented for assessing oil production in the USA, Saudi Arabia and Russia – the world’s leading oil producers – and globally (in the world’s context) in the past, currently and in the foreseeable future (throughout 2050). Crude oil and field (crude + lease NGLs) are considered. Oil developments in the USA, Saudi Arabia and Russia are analyzed separately with their main oil fields being covered. In the past a status of the world’s largest oil producer was taken in rotation by Russia and Saudi Arabia. Before 1992 the world supremacy in oil belonged to Russia but afterwards and until 2014 – mainly to Saudi Arabia. The article mainly concludes that now (since 2014) the USA produce more oil (crude oil + field condensate) than any other country of the world, even without accounting for indigenous biofuel liquids and mostly thanks to the massive tight-oil production.