Where’s the Oil?Exploring the Top Five Oil Producing Countries.

VenezuelaOil Rich

Venezuelan Oil

Leads with 297 Billion Barrels of oil reserves

Founding Member of OPEC (Organization of the

Petroleum Exporting Communities)

Been drilling for almost a century

≈50% Government revenue comes from oil

Saudi ArabiaTop of the Class in the Middle East

About Saudi Oil

Rich history– about 265 billion barrels of oil reserves’

worth

Used to be one of the poorest countries

Oil was discovered in 1938

Changed the economic direction of the country.

At first, American owned Aramco developed the oil

fields

Oil revenue advanced Saudi Economy

Society, Economy, and Infrastructure rapidly

advanced

By 1976 it was the worlds leading oil producer

Gained control of Aramco in 1980.

Now one of the world’s richest countries!

CanadaKing of the North

O(il) Canada!

173 billion barrels

95% are located in Alberta

Reserves are special because they occur in oil sands

Wait– Oil What?

Quick Geology Lesson: Oil Sands are relatively rare

Unusual occurrence of petroleum

In Alberta, there is an unusually high number of such

sands

Oil sands are a mix of sand, clay, water, and bitumen

Bitumen = viscous petroleum

Bitumen is so viscous that it must be heated to flow

Peoples of the First Nations actually coated their

canoes in bitumen to water proof them

And that’s been going on since prehistoric times

IranRegaining Control

What Happened?

154 billion barrels

Persian oil first discovered in 1908

Britain seized control

Offered Persia £4 for every ton of oil produced

Forbade them from controlling Exports

Began to change in 50’s

Persia nationalized the oil industry

Canceled all international oil agreements during the

Iranian Revolution

Iran now manufactures many tools used in the oil

drilling industry

Now capable of deep-sea drilling

IraqRecovering from War

Lots of Guesswork

Iraq is sitting on about 141 billion barrels of oil

Domestic unrest has impacted data collection

Our estimates are based on 30 year old data

Struggling to meet export demands

War has left a lot of oil drilling infrastructure in disrepair

But there are believed to be more oil in unexplored

territories!

Learn more at maritimedrillingschool.net

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