Top 10 World’s Biggest Oil Exporters & Reasons That Make U.S Largest Oil Producer

Oil is the world’s third most valuable export product in terms of revenue. Crude petroleum accounted for 3.82% of global trade in 2020. Crude oil is crude petroleum that is used to make a variety of products such as gasoline, heating fuel, and polymers. Global oil producer reached 4.2 billion metric tons in 2020.

Saudi Arabia has always dominated the world in annual oil exports. But that changed in 2019 when the United Arab Emirates surpassed it as the world’s largest oil exporter. Saudi Arabia reclaimed first place in 2020. In addition, the United States has expanded its share of global oil exports. Accounting for 8.17% of total exports in 2020, up from 5.71% in 2019.

World’s biggest oil exporter

This article examines the world’s top ten oil-exporting countries. In 2019, these ten countries accounted for roughly three-quarters of total global oil exports.

• Saudi Arabia

This Middle Eastern oil behemoth with used rails suppliers was the world’s top oil exporter until the United Arab Emirates took over in 2019. However, Saudi Arabia reclaimed the top rank in 2020, with $95.7 billion in oil exports. This accounts for 15% of worldwide oil exports. It is also the top oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), producing close to 12 million barrels of oil per day in 2020, accounting for nearly 15% of world output.

Saudi Arabia possesses approximately 15% of the world’s oil reserves. As such, the industry accounts for as much as 70% of the country’s exports and more than half of government revenue.

• Russia

Russia is ranked second. It accounted for 11.6% of world exports in 2020, totaling $74.4 billion. Major players such as Rosneft, Surgutneftegas, and Gazprom produced an annual average of 10.5 million barrels per day. This represents 11% of global oil production.

The European market is heavily reliant on Russian oil exports, while the Russian oil sector is heavily reliant on European imports. In 2020, Europe received 48% of all oil exports. Between 2011 and 2020, oil and natural gas accounted for approximately 43% of Russian government revenue.

The United States and the European Union (EU) imposed economic sanctions on Russia in 2014 after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine. As a result, Russian energy companies are barred from entering these finance markets. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 caused the United States to impose even harsher sanctions, including a ban on Russian oil imports.

• United States

The US is the world’s third-largest oil exporter. It exported $52.3 billion in oil in 2020, accounting for 8.17% of global exports. Between 2011 and 2020, the country greatly expanded its oil output. In 2020, the United States produced 18.61 million barrels of oil per day, accounting for around 20% of global output.

However, some of the world’s top oil corporations are headquartered in the United States, including Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), and Exxon Mobil (XOM) (XOM).

• Canada

Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter. In 2020, it exported $47.2 billion in oil, accounting for 7.37% of the global total. It has the world’s third-largest known oil reserves, at 167 above billion barrels. The majority of such reserves are found in Alberta’s oil sands.

Moreover, as is often the case, Canada’s oil industry is inextricably linked to the American economy. In 2018, 96% of Canadian oil exports went to the United States, and 48% of all U.S. oil imports came from Canada.

However, Canada is home to some of the world’s largest energy firms, including Enbridge (ENB.TO), Suncor (SU.TO), and Imperial Oil (IMO.TO).

• Iraq

Iraq was the world’s second-largest oil exporter in 2016, but now ranks fifth, with $45.2 billion in income and exporting 7.06% of all oil exports that year. It is the second-largest producer of OPEC after Saudi Arabia.

Iraq possesses the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, however, the majority of those reserves have already been tapped or are being produced, according to the US Energy Information Agency. Iraq is also overly reliant on oil earnings, which accounted for an estimated 91% of government revenues in 2018.

• United Arab Emirates (UAE)

In 2019, the United Arab Emirates, a small country about the size of South Carolina, exported $176 billion in oil, accounting for 16.13% of global oil exports. Despite being the greatest oil exporter in 2019, it dropped to sixth place in 2020, with $42 billion in revenue and 6.57% of total oil exports. In 2020, the UAE produced 3.78 million barrels per day, representing 4% of total global output.

The UAE is thought to have the world’s seventh-largest oil reserves, totaling roughly 100 billion barrels. The country’s economy is less reliant on oil than it once was, but oil and gas production still accounts for approximately 30% of GDP.

• Nigeria

In 2020, Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, was the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter. The country exported $30 billion in oil, accounting for around 4.68% of the global total. Nigeria has the continent’s second-largest proven oil reserves. The majority of its 37 billion barrels of reserves are situated in the Niger River Delta and offshore in the Gulf of Guinea, Benin Bight, and Bonny Bight.

Nigeria’s oil is imported by a wide group of customers. In 2018, Nigeria exported 20% of its goods to India, 11% to Spain, 10% to the Netherlands, and 10% to the United States. The revenue streams of the Nigerian government, on the other hand, are significantly less diverse. Non-oil revenue for the government accounts for only 3.4% of GDP.

• Kuwait

Given its tiny size, Kuwait’s ranking among the world’s top oil exporters is impressive. The country is about the size of Connecticut and is located on the Arabian Peninsula.

Kuwait exported $27.6 billion in oil in 2020, accounting for 4.32% of worldwide exports. Kuwait produced approximately 2.75 million barrels of oil per day in 2020, ranking it ninth in the world. The country has the sixth-largest World reserves.

The most prevalent factors influencing crude oil prices are supply and demand.

• Kazakhstan

In 2020, Kazakhstan was the ninth-largest oil exporter. It’s $25.2 billion in exports representing 3.94% of the global total. Kazakhstan had a 30 billion barrel reserve in 2018, according to the Oil and Gas Journal. This ranked it twelfth in the world for reserves, just behind the United States.

Kazakhstan gets its oil from two onshore locations in the country’s northwest and one in the Caspian Sea.

• Norway

In 2020, Norway exported $22.6 billion in oil, accounting for 3.53% of world oil commerce. This places it as the world’s tenth-largest exporter of oil.

Norway has the most oil reserves in Western Europe, and the vast bulk of its oil is exported to its European neighbors. Despite a steady decline in output throughout the course of the twenty-first century, the oil industry still accounts for 50% of Norwegian exports and more than 20% of GDP.

Reasons why the US is the world’s largest oil producer

The main reasons for this are Saudi Arabia’s reduction, the US’s absence from OPEC, and cost efficiencies in drilling.

Saudi Arabia’s declining influence.

Assuming that the top spot represents the world’s largest economy’s influence on oil, Saudi Arabia’s growing costs are having a direct impact.

According to reports, Saudi Arabia was seeking investment from the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, in Aramco, the Saudi state oil producer’s first public offering (IPO). This highlights the Kingdom’s uncertainty about its oil future. In such circumstances, increased US oil flows worsen the country’s recent gains in influence over the global oil business.

Saudi Arabia’s reduction in output in July helped the US’s control over global oil supplies.

The United States is not included in OPEC.

Because the United States is not a member of OPEC, it is free to pursue capacity expansion to whatever extent it sees fit, undermining the influence of other oil-producing countries. The United States is likewise reasonably stable, but several major OPEC producers endure chronic volatility. While oil-producing countries such as Venezuela and Iran reduced output, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria increased OPEC output in August 2018.

Iraq and Libya both raised output levels, although Iraq is suffering civil turmoil near its oil production facilities in Basra, and Libya remains chronically unstable.

Iran is under US sanctions that are effectively killing its exports, while Venezuela is also experiencing an economic crisis that has resulted in a drop in output.

Drilling costs have improved.

Oil majors operating in the United States were able to expand. Due to much-increased cost efficiency drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The conventional opinion holds that circumstances in the Arabian oil nations are easier and less expensive than those in the Gulf of Mexico. However, costs have dropped significantly, allowing oil from the Gulf to be drilled at much more competitive pricing. The ‘gold plated’ bespoke setups are no longer available. Oil companies are sharing rig designs across oil fields and adjusting them to local needs.

Conclusion

Since 2018, the United States has been the world’s leading producer of oil (including crude, other petroleum liquids like virgin fuel oil d6, and biofuels).

So, if America produces nearly the same amount of oil as it imports, and interest in renewables is increasing. Shouldn’t it be true that the United States would be less dependent on foreign oil? And that energy price worries would lessen because domestic inventories would be more than adequate.