Some fascinating facts about oil you may not know…

• The world consumes 87 million barrels of oil per day
• In 2011, global oil production averaged 88 million barrels per day
• The average oil consumption per capita in China is 2.5 barrels per person versus 23 in the US, 10 in the UK, 13 in Japan and 33 in Saudi Arabia
• A US geological Oil and Gas Reserve Survey covering the area north of the Arctic circle and published in July 2008, stated that although representing only 6 percent of the earth’s surface, this unspoilt region is said to account for 22 percent of the “undiscovered, technically recoverable (oil and gas) resources in the world”. This includes 13 percent of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves and 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas – together the equivalent of 412 billion barrels of oil, 56 years of US oil consumption. However, this new potentia oil province is proving more difficult to access than many thought with Cairn Energy has spent $1.2 billion offshore West Greenland exploring for oil and found nothing after 8 exploration wells!
• Nearly a quarter of worlds daily output of 85 million barrels is pumped from the biggest 20 fields e.g. Ghawar in Saudi Arabia
• Combined production in the British and Norweigan sectors of the North Sea peaked in 1999 at 6.1 million barrels per day. Total output dropped  to 2.8 million barrels by 2020.
• In 2000 the UK produced 3.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it the fourth largest producer in the world after Russia, the USA and Canada. In 2009, it had dropped to 2.1 trillion cubic feet, a decline of 44.7%
• Japan, USA, India, Germany and China are the largest importers of oil in the world (China is the world’s largest consumer of energy)

 Contrarian Investor UK