World Energy Resources | 2016

Resource (Billion Barrels of Oil)
WORLD ENERGY COUNCIL | WORLD ENERGY RESOURCES 2016
It has been noted that the estimates for oil shale resources are rather conservative, as several
deposits have still not been adequately explored. Consequently, many countries are reexamining
their resource potential. For example, China just discovered one billion bbl resource
in Heilongjiang Province. The largest recent estimates put US oil shale resources at 6 trillion
bbl, China is second at 330 billion bbl, Russia third at 270 billion bbl, Israel fourth at 250 billion
bbl, and Jordan and DR Congo tied for fifth at 100 billion bbl. Estonia, which is on the way to
become the largest producer of shale oil next year, is currently 11 th with only 16 billion bbl.
The size of the oil shale resources is highly dependent on which grade cut-off is used.
FIGURE 7: OIL SHALE RESOURCES
Total Resource: 4291
billion barrels
Greater Green River
Uinta
Piceance
US Total Resource (USGS)
U. S. Reserves
Cutoff grade (gal/ton)
Source: Birdwell et al. (2013)
ORGANISATION OF THE OIL INDUSTRY
The traded market for oil
Total world production of crude oil is around 95 million barrels per day. The crude oil feeds a
network of refineries at key locations situated close to consuming centers or next to pipelines or
shipping facilities. The crude oil is processed at the refineries and transformed into finished oil
products.
Some companies are fully integrated, refining their own crude oil production and then feeding
their retail networks with the oil products produced. For the most part, production and refining
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