Oil and Gas in Saudi Arabia in 10 Charts
Today, September 23, is Saudi Arabia’s National Day
Main Takeaways
Today, September 23, is Saudi Arabia’s National Day
Crude exports are declining, petroleum products exports are flat (see Figures 7 & 8)
BP, ENI, IEA, EIA, and others exaggerate the oil consumption of Saudi Arabia. As a result, Saudi CO2 emissions are also exaggerated.
Saudi Arabia is a major natural gas producer but all production is used domestically
When looking at the ranking of various countries in oil reserves that can be extracted technically and economically, Saudi Arabia is the largest holder of such reserves in the world, not Venezuela.
Important Articles:
Mar 3, 1938 CE: Oil Discovered in Saudi Arabia
The First Discoveries of Oil in Saudi Arabia
The story behind exploring oil in Saudi Arabia
Every year, on September 23, Saudis commemorate the 1932 royal proclamation that renamed the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The renaming comes a few years after King Abdulaziz Al-Saud unified the various parts of Saudi Arabia under his leadership.
On this occasion, we would like to share with our readers several charts about oil and gas in Saudi Arabia.
Oil and Gas Reserves
It is widely thought that Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world followed by Saudi Arabia. But looking at who can actually extract the claimed reserves, Saudi Arabia comes on top, and Venezuela as number 5 or 6.
While most experts raise doubts about OPEC reserve numbers anyway, especially in Iraq and Iran, Saudi reserves were verified and confirmed by external auditors.
Oil and Gas Production
Saudi Arabia's Oil Consumption
Saudi oil consumption as published by BP (Now published by the Energy Institute), ENI, EIA, and others, is exaggerated and literally wrong. We, at EOA, corrected the consumption numbers to reflect actual consumption within the borders of Saudi Arabia. One of the implications of the correction is that CO2 emissions are lower than those published by various organizations.
However, even the corrected number does not reflect what Saudi citizens consume. Some of the liquids are used as feedstock in petrochemical plants. The Products of these plants are exported. The same logic applies to natural gas consumption figures.
All the natural gas produced in Saudi Arabia is used domestically in power plants, petrochemical and other industries, water desalination plants, and reinjection in the oil fields.
Oil Exports
Saudi Oil Export Revenues
