US Oil Reserves Exceed Those of Saudi Arabia
Oil pumps in California. (Photo: © CGP Grey/Creative Commons)
According to Rystad Energy the US has more reserves of recoverable oil than Saudi Arabia, which has long led the international oil markets.
Rystad Energy, a Norwegian based oil and gas consultancy firm, assessed America's reserves at 264bn barrels, surpassing Saudi Arabia's stock for the first time.
By contrast the Gulf monarchy has estimated reserves of 212bn.
The group assessed 60,000 oil fields worldwide over a period of three years to estimate the accessible oil available to different states and corporations.
Other indexes, such as the BP Statistical Review, rank the United States as behind the Saudis in oil reserves. Rystad says that the BP Statistical Review is less accurate since it uses government data rather than independent assessment, and that the processes by which governments assess oil stocks are "opaque."
Since the development of fracking technologies, the U.S. has seen an oil boom which is partly responsible for the global slump in oil prices. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have been deliberately flooding the market with oil in order to keep prices low and damage the viability of U.S. oil from fracking, which is more expensive to extract.
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