Despite the term “Big Oil” which is referring to the largest energy companies in the world, the famous names like BP, Shell, Statoil, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, Repsol, ConocoPhillips,  etc, the numbers actually tell the real story.

The so called “Big Oil” companies only account for 25% of oil production.

OPEC (The Oil Production Exporting Companies) account for 75% of oil production.
Yes, Saudi Arabia, Oman the UAE, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait dominate oil production.

Reading the BP Statistical Review of World Energy one gets a grip on the numbers
[http://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/statistical-review/statistical_review_of_world_energy_2013.pdf]

Total Oil Production = 86,152,000 barrels a day.
A barrel of oil is about US $111.

Thus crude oil production per day is worth a staggering $9,562,872,000 = £5,814,890,000 a day

Total Oil Consumption = 89,774,000 barrels a day.
A barrel of oil is about US $111.

Thus crude oil consumption per day is worth a staggering $9,964,914,000
= £6,059,360,000 a day

And note consumption is based on production, and the production of £5,814,890,000 per day (£5.8 billion) over 75% of this is from OPEC. The interesting fact is that we consume more oil than we produce, meaning we are pulling against oil reserves to meet consumption demand.

The so called oil majors that make up “Big Oil” are actually oil minors.