Russia Leads U.S., China in Shale Oil Reserves

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Russia has the world's largest identified shale oil resources with 75 billion barrels of technically recoverable resources, followed by the U.S. with 58 billion barrels and China with 32 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The remaining countries in the top 10 are Argentina (27 billion barrels); Libya (26 billion barrels); Venezuela (13 billion barrels); Mexico (13 billion barrels); Pakistan (9 billion); Canada (9 billion barrels) and Indonesia (8 billion barrels).

The Bazenhov formation in western Siberia is Russia's richest shale oil source, with total reserves estimated at 1.24 trillion barrels, of which 74.6 billion barrels are currently believed to be technically recoverable. The IEA reports that global shale oil resources are estimated at 345 billion barrels, which is equal to about 10% of global recoverable oil.

Currently only the U.S. and Canada are producing shale oil and shale gas in commercial quantities.

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