In this article, we discuss the top 25 oil-producing countries of the world. To skip the detailed analysis and latest updates on the oil industry, go directly to the Top 5 Oil Producing Countries in the World.
Even though the world is moving toward renewable energy sources at a fast pace due to climate change issues, crude oil is still essential to the global economy and is here to stay for a long time. Currently, Brent Crude oil is the most traded commodity in the world followed by West Texas Intermediate Crude oil. In 2022, over 246.9 million Futures and Options Contracts of Brent Crude oil were traded on the Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE).
We previously mentioned that the global crude oil market was worth $1.4 trillion in 2021 and is expected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2029. The CAGR of 1.8% may seem slow but it is because the crude oil industry is quite mature and high volatility is expected in the coming years.
Latest Updates on the Crude Oil Market
One of the major events that is still affecting the global crude oil market is the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which we discussed in detail in one of our previous articles. Up until now, the EU has sanctioned around €91.2 billion worth of imports from Russia, and a large part of it consists of oil and gas.
As of February 5, the EU has banned all seaborne petroleum products from Russia which has led the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to update its previous outlook to an average Brent Crude oil price forecast of $85 per barrel for the second quarter of 2022 from the prior $83 per barrel. The ban was announced in December 2022 and was implemented in February 2023. The EIA predicts that the average per-barrel price will show no major changes through the second quarter of 2023 and will start to decline through the end of 2024. For 2023, the EIA expects the annual average price of Brent Crude oil to be around $83 per barrel and decline to $78 per barrel in 2024.
Crude Oil Stocks
In 2022, US crude oil exports hit a record high of 3.6 million barrels a day, mostly due to sanctions on Russian imports. Due to that, crude oil stocks enjoyed one of the best times in 2022. The top 5 US oil companies posted a profit of almost $200 billion in the year.
However, in the last three months, the stocks have taken a beating with ETFs such as Direxion Daily S&P Oil & Gas Exp. & Prod. Bull 2X Shares (NYSEARCA: GUSH) declining by almost 21%, and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (NYSEARCA: UCO) decreasing by 10.2% at the time of writing.
For our list, we calculated the mean value of the monthly production volume of each country from January to December 2022, based on the data taken from the Trading Economics website. A few of these figures might have changed depending on any new data updates or modifications. The countries are listed in ascending order of their crude oil production in 2022. For Russia's production, due to varying figures from multiple sources, we took the country's production figures from S&P Global.
For crude oil, we used a more strict definition of crude oil and did not include NGPL and other liquids. Had we used a broader definition of crude oil, the oil production of some countries would have been be higher than what’s on this list.
Top 25 Oil Producing Countries in the World
25. India
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 605,186 barrels per day
India’s global oil production has remained flat over the years but its population is growing quite fast. The country had a population of 1.34 billion in 2020 which reached nearly 1.4 billion in 2022. Due to that, the demand for imported oil has been growing in India and it is expected that in 2023, the country’s oil imports will reach 87% from 85.7% in 2022.
24. Indonesia
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 612,300 barrels per day
Indonesian oil production has been declining since 1990 while the demand has been rising significantly. The country became a net oil importer in 2004. Some of the problems that Indonesia is facing in oil production are the lack of investments in old fields and changing government policies. However, the country plans to increase its oil lifting to 1 million barrels per day by 2030.
23. Azerbaijan
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 657,122 barrels per day
Azerbaijan is an oil-rich country and a notable part of its economy depends on oil and gas production. Between 1898 and 1901, the country was responsible for 50% of global oil production. As of December 2021, Azerbaijan had crude oil reserves of around 7 billion barrels.
In 2022, Azerbaijan produced 657,122 barrels per day of crude oil, and the EIA believes that the country will produce 640,000 to 670,000 barrels of oil per day in 2023.
22. Venezuela
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 717,083
Venezuela’s crude oil production has been declining over the years due to sanctions put forth by the US. The US brought the sanctions upon the country as Venezuela demanded larger shares of revenues from international companies that had investments in the country.
According to a Statistical Review of World Energy by BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP), Venezuela is home to the largest oil reserves in the world. By 2020, the country had proven oil reserves of 303.8 billion barrels, compared to 297.5 billion in Saudi Arabia.
21. United Kingdom
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 754,166 barrels per day
The United Kingdom’s crude oil production has consistently been dropping for the past few decades. In 2022, the country’s total oil production dropped by almost 65 million barrels per day and is expected to decrease even further till 2026. The entirety of the UK’s oil reserves is found offshore.
At the end of 2021, the UK had oil reserves of around 4 billion barrels.
20. Columbia
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 754,200 barrels per day
In 2022, Columbia’s crude oil production increased by 2.4% from 796,164 barrels per day in 2021 to 754,200 barrels per day in 2022. Previously, the country’s fossil fuel production was declining due to National Liberation Army’s attacks on oil pipelines. Columbia’s oil production declined notably in 2021 but showed signs of recovery in 2022. According to EIA, 14,000 barrels of oil production were disrupted per day in Columbia in 2021.
19. Libya
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.018 million barrels per day
Libya’s economy is largely dependent on oil and natural gas and is one of the richest countries in Africa. It is an OPEC country and joined the organization in 1962. Libya’s daily crude oil production was 1.018 million barrels per day which were largely affected by low production outputs between April to July 2022. The country’s lowest production month was June with only 632,000 barrels of oil per day.
18. Algeria
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.020 million barrels per day
Algeria is the largest country in Africa. Most of the country is dependent on oil, gas, and other natural resources like iron ore, phosphates, uranium, and lead. As of 2022, the country has proven oil reserves of 12.2 billion barrels. Algeria exports around 60% of its produced oil each year.
17. Oman
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.06 million barrels per day
The majority of Oman’s economy is dependent on mineral fuels, especially oil. Apart from that, the tourism industry is also catching pace in the country. In December 2022, the country experienced a remarkable surge in imports to Japan at 179.3%. In addition, Oman’s oil exports to South Korea increased by almost 93% YoY.
16. Angola
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.14 million barrels per day
Currently, Angola has proven oil reserves of around 9 billion barrels. However, it is estimated that the country might have 57 billion barrels of un-proven oil reserves. The same contrast is seen with its proven and unproven natural gas reserves.
Angola is the second largest oil producer in Africa with 1.14 million barrels per day of crude oil production in 2022.
15. Nigeria
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.144 million barrels per day
Nigeria holds the second-largest proven oil reserves in Africa with 36.89 billion barrels. However, its oil production often gets severely disrupted due to pipeline thefts. In 2022, the country expected a daily output of 1.88 million barrels but fell short by almost 736,000 barrels per day. According to our calculations, this amounts to a loss of $26.864 billion after multiplying the total with 2022’s average Brent crude oil spot price of $100.
14. Qatar
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.321 million barrels per day
Qatar is the world’s richest country with a GDP per capita of $129,360. Oil and natural gas exports are one of the most significant sources of income for the country. Except for the first two months of 2022, Qatar’s daily crude oil production remained stable at 1.322 million barrels per day for every month. As of 2021, Qatar had proven oil reserves of 25.24 billion barrels.
13. Norway
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.55 million barrels per day
Norway is a part of the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Oil covers 0.2% of the GDP of OECD countries with the exception of Norway. Compared to its size and population, it is a relatively oil-rich country, and the commodity covers 4.3% of Norway’s GDP. In June 2022, the country experienced its lowest oil production for the year at 1.35 million barrels of oil per day. Later in August, Norway’s oil production reached its peak for the year at 1.808 million barrels of oil per day.
12. Kazakhstan
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.7 million barrels per day
Kazakhstan accounts for 3% of the global oil reserves with approximately 30 billion barrels of oil reserves. However, it is predicted that there are at least 60-100 billion barrels of oil that are yet to be proven in the Kazakh part of the Caspian Sea. In the Caspian Sea region, Kazakhstan holds the largest proven oil reserves.
11. Mexico
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 1.71 million barrels per day
Mexico’s crude oil production capacity has been declining over the last decade. In December 2012, the country’s oil production was over 2.5 million barrels a day which reached around 1.71 million barrels per day in 2022. Despite that, it is one of the largest exporters of crude oil to the US.
10. Iran
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 2.54 million barrels per day
According to OPEC, Iran’s average production for 2022 increased by 140,000 barrels per day to 2.54 million barrels per day. The country reached its peak production for the year in December with 2.58 million barrels per day.
Iran is quite secretive when it comes to its oil export data. According to EIA, the country exports around 600,000 barrels per day. Nevertheless, the data for Iran’s oil export varies from source to source and it is somewhere between 600,000 to 1.2 million barrels per day.
9. Kuwait
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 2.7 million barrels per day
Kuwait’s daily oil production averaged 2.7 million barrels per day, showing a significant increase from the prior year. By 2025, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation plans to increase its daily production to 3.5 million barrels. Most of the country’s oil production operations are in the South East of Kuwait at the Greater Burgan field which produces over 1.6 million barrels per day.
Over 90% of Kuwait’s income is oil dependent. For the fiscal year 2022, which ends on March 31, 2023, Kuwait’s oil revenues are expected to be approximately or over $82 billion due to the crude oil price hikes in 2022.
8. Brazil
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 3021.7 million barrels per day
Brazil is the biggest oil producer in South America. Close to 97% of Brazil’s oil reserves are offshore and the International Energy Agency believes that by 2040, Brazil will account for over half of the global offshore oil.
Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) is the biggest Brazilian oil and gas company and it accounts for over 70% of the country’s oil and gas production.
7. United Arab Emirates
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 3.064 million barrels per day
Among the OPEC countries, UAE is the third largest oil producer. Nevertheless, according to CNBC, UAE is looking to exit OPEC as Abu Dhabi, the city where 96% of the country’s oil reserves are, demands its own baseline. As of April 2022, Saudi Arabia raised UAE’s baseline to 3.65 million barrels per day from the prior 3.2 million barrels per day.
UAE is making plans to increase its daily oil production aggressively. The country wants to spend around $150 billion by 2027 to push its oil production capacity to 5 million barrels per day. Previously, this target was set for 2030.
6. Canada
Crude Oil Production in 2022: 4.076 million barrels per day
Canada accounts for 10% of global crude oil reserves with 171.0 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Almost all of the country’s crude oil reserves are found in Alberta's oil sands. Canada’s production dropped from 4.439 million barrels per day in 2021 to 4.076 million barrels per day in 2022.
