Given these and other recent market events, many investors are curious to know which countries produce the most oil.
Read on for a look at the top 10 oil-producing countries in 2023, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Canada. The top 10 countries combined for 74.59 million bpd out of the total global output of 101.81 bpd.
Production: 21.91 million bpd (includes crude oil and liquids)
Production: 11.13 million bpd (includes natural gas liquids)
Production: 10.75 million bpd (includes natural gas liquids)
Prior to production cuts in 2020, Russian oil output had spent a number of years rising; it came in at 10.75 million bpd in 2023. Most of Russia’s reserves are located in West Siberia, between the Ural Mountains and the Central Siberian Plateau, as well as in the Urals-Volga region, extending into the Caspian Sea.
Production: 5.76 million bpd
Next on this list of the top 10 oil-producing nations is Canada. The country’s annual oil production rose by about 10,000 bpd from the previous year to 5.76 million bpd in 2023.
Production: 5.26 million bpd
China’s annual oil output was 5.26 million bpd in 2023. The nation is the world’s second largest consumer of oil and moved from being the second largest net importer of oil to the largest in 2014.
Production: 4.42 million bpd
Still the second-largest oil producer in OPEC, Iraq’s annual oil production declined from 4.55 million bpd in 2022 to 4.42 million bpd for 2023.
Production: 4.28 million bpd
According to the EIA, total primary energy consumption in Brazil has nearly doubled in the past decade due to sustained economic growth. The largest share of Brazil’s total energy consumption is oil and other liquid fuels, followed by hydroelectricity and natural gas.
Production: 4.16 million bpd
The United Arab Emirates is another OPEC member and has ranked among the world’s top 10 oil-producing countries for decades. In 2023, it saw a slight drop in production on OPEC production cuts.
Production: 3.99 million bpd
Production: 2.91 million bpd
Last on this list of the top 10 oil-producing countries is Kuwait, which has struggled in recent years to bring its oil output back up to 3.5 million bpd. Economy Middle East reports that key infrastructure projects have been delayed by internal political strife.
Kuwait’s oil and gas sector accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s GDP, and an even larger share of its export revenues at around 95 percent.
Crude oil is a naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbon deposits and other organic materials that exists in liquid form in underground reservoirs. This raw natural resource is a globally important commodity that can be traded both on the spot market and via derivatives contracts.
Once extracted from the Earth, crude oil is refined to make several products, including gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products such as kerosene, paraffin, petrochemical feedstocks, solvents and lubricants.
Founded in 1960, OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is a group of 13 countries headquartered in Vienna, Austria. Led by Saudi Arabia, it controls production, supply and pricing in the global petroleum market.
Currently OPEC has 13 member nations: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
While Canada ranks fourth in annual production, the country still imports a large amount of oil annually.
It is estimated that half of the oil used in Québec and Atlantic Canada is purchased offshore from the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UK, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. Roughly C$19 billion is spent on oil imports each year.
The US is the top producer of oil, but the country requires foreign imports to meet its increasing domestic demand.
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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