Proved Oil Reserves Distribution: 1997, 2007 and 2017

Proved oil reserves distribution has changed over the years since the 1990s. Here is an overview of the major changes in proved oil reserves distribution took place between 1997 to 2007 and 2007 to 2017, and which regions hold the most proved oil reserves today:

Between 1997 and 2007, where there was a huge addition of proved oil reserves in North America and Africa:

• North America’s proved oil reserves increased by approximately 74 percent, from 127.1 billion barrels in the 1997 to 221.5 billion barrels in 2007.
• Africa’s proved oil reserves increased by approximately 59 percent, from 75.3 billion barrels in the 1997 to 119.7 billion barrels 2007.
• Slight increases in proved oil reserves were also noticed in South and Central America, Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
• Due to the huge increase in proved oil reserves in North America and Africa, Middle East’s percent of proved oil reserves from the world total oil reserves declined from 58.8 in 1997 to 52.9 in 2007.
• Between 1997 to 2007, the world total proved oil reserves increased from 1162.1 billion barrels to 1427.1 billion barrels.

Between 2007 and 2017, where there was a huge addition of proved oil reserves in South & Central America:

• South and Central America’s proved oil reserves more than doubled between 2007 and 2017 with an addition of 204.8 billion barrels of proved oil reserves during this period. South and Central America’s percent share from the world total roved oil reserves increased from 8.8 percent in 2007 to 19.5 percent in 2017. The region’s current proved oil reserves stands at 330.1 billion barrels.
• Due to the huge increase in South and Central America’s proved oil reserves, the share percentages of other regions from the world total proved oil reserves decreased. Middle East percentage was down from 52.9 percent in 2007 to 47.6 in 2017. North America and Africa percentages were down from 15.5 percent and 8.4 percent to 13.3 percent and 7.5 percent respectively.

Proved Oil Reserves Distribution 

The world total proved oil reserves in 2017 stands at 1696.6 billion barrels.