The Total World Supply of Crude Oil

The UK energy giant, BP [www.bp.com] is one of the world “oil majors” has an energy economics team, that produce the high revered annual Statistical Review of World Energy.

[http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/energy-economics.html]

This is quite a large document, but is full of interesting facts.

Based on the figures from BP that are known to be used by wider industry one can see the world total of proven Crude Oil reserves are:-

1,687,300,000,000 barrels of crude.

[One trillion, six hundred eighty-seven billion, three hundred million barrels of crude]

Now today, the world consumes:-
91,331,000 barrels of crude per day.

[Ninety one million, three hundred and thirty one thousand barrels of crude per day]

So one can calculate based on current consumption the length of time before crude oil runs out:

1,687,300,000,000 / 91,331,000 = 18474.5 days.

18474 days / 365 to give us years = 50.6 years.

So based on some ball park figures we have just over 50 years left on crude oil reserves.

Now my calculations do not factor in new reserves being found, or consumption of crude falling and new sources of energy such as solar and hydrogen which of course will alter crude oil demand, or even people following the wise example of Dean Lawford and driving a hybrid Lexus, but based on current circumstances, 50 years based on demand today, and with China, India and other Emerging Markets and Frontier Markets all getting wealthier the demand of oil is still on an upward trajectory.

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