* Ikrami Abdullah from Riyadh
Saudi Arabia is the world's second-largest oil exporter with proven oil reserves of 268.5 billion barrels, with 18.1 per cent of the world oil reserves of 1.48 trillion barrels by the end of 2017.
According to the analysis of economic reports unit in the newspaper "AlEqtisadiah" that based on the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia's oil reserves are second in the world after Venezuela, with reserves of 302.8 billion barrels, 20.4 percent of the world.
Saudi oil reserves, 33.4 percent of the reserves in the Middle East of 804.6 billion barrels and 22.1 per cent of OPEC's reserves of 1.21 trillion barrels by the end of 2017.
The report was based on the announcement by the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources in Saudi Arabia yesterday of oil reserves following an independent review by D & M, the leading consulting firm, as well as data from OPEC and the International Energy Agency.
Of the world's 20 largest proven oil reserves, Iran that came behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia has a proven oil reserves of 155.6 billion barrels, accounting for 10.5 percent of the world's reserves, and followed by Iraq with 147.2 billion barrels, accounting for 9.9 percent.
Kuwait has a proven oil reserves of 101.5 billion barrels, accounting for 6.8 percent of the world's reserves, and followed by the UAE with 97.8 billion barrels, equivalent to 6.8 percent.
Russia was ranked seventh with proven oil reserves of 80 billion barrels, accounting for 5.4 percent of the world's reserves, and followed by Libya with 48.4 billion barrels, representing 3.3 percent.
Nigeria has a proven oil reserves of 37.5 billion barrels, which accounts for 2.5 percent of the world's reserves, and the United States of America came in tenth place with 32.8 billion barrels, equivalent to 2.2 percent.
The ranking of the centers from 10 to 20 in the world in terms of proven oil reserves as follows: Kazakhstan 30 billion barrels (2 per cent of the world), China 25.6 billion barrels (1.7 per cent), Qatar 25.2 billion barrels (1.7 per cent), Brazil 12.6 billion barrels (0.9 per cent), and Algeria 12.2 billion barrels (0.8 per cent).
They are followed by Angola with an oil reserve of 8.4 billion barrels (0.6 per cent of the world), Ecuador 8.3 billion barrels (0.6 per cent), Azerbaijan with Seven billion barrels (0.5 per cent), Mexico 6.5 billion barrels (0.4 per cent), and then Norway, which ranks 20th in the world, with 6.4 billion barrels, representing 0.4 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves.
OPEC data relies on conventional oil reserves in the world and does not include rock oil.
So Canada came out of the list of major countries to grab the reserve, having only 3.8 billion barrels of conventional oil, with a total of conventional and non-conventional about 173 billion barrels.
The Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources in Saudi Arabia announced yesterday the increase of fixed reserves of oil in the Kingdom, after Saudi Aramco's oil and gas reserves are subject to independent certification by D & M, a leading consulting firm.
The Kingdom had previously announced that by the end of 2017, oil reserves were amounted to 266.3 billion barrels of oil of which 260.9 billion barrels represent estimates of fixed oil reserves in the Saudi Aramco concession.
Following approval, Saudi Aramco's reserves increased by 2.2 billion barrels at the end of 2017 to reach 263.1 billion barrels of oil.
In addition to the reserves of the Saudi Aramco concession area, the Kingdom also owns half of the oil reserves in the divided region jointly owned by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The kingdom's share of oil reserves in the "land and sea" combined area is 5.4 billion barrels.
Therefore, the inclusion of the review by D'Geller & McKinnon for oil reserves in the Saudi Aramco concession area in order to raise the total fixed oil reserves in the Kingdom as of the end of 2017 to about 268.5 billion barrels of oil and 325.1 trillion standard cubic feet of gas.
* Economic Reports Unit
