10 Top Oil and Natural Gas Exporting Countries

Crude Oil, also known as “Black Gold” and Natural Gas are two of the major commodities that are traded heavily in the international commodity markets. Countries that are blessed with these resources accumulate great wealth as the prices of oil and natural gas go up. Russia, for example, reaped huge profits in recent years when prices of crude oil soared. Conversely the Russian markets fell hard last year when crude prices fell dramatically.

While most people know that the Middle East holds most of the world’s oil reserves, not many of us know what countries exactly export the most of the oil produced. The same applies to natural gas as well. So I did some research to find out the answers.

The Top 10 Oil and Natural Gas Exporting Countries in 2007 were:

Click to Expand

Source: Facts - 2009, The Norwegian Petroleum Sector
Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Norway

Note: The latest data available is for 2007

Saudi Arabia was the largest exporter of oil at 8.1 Million per day. Russia came in at second. Norway ranked fifth with 2.3M barrels per day. StatoilHydro ASA (STO) is one of the largest Norwegian oil and gas companies that is active in many countries.

Russia was the largest exporter of natural gas. It is interesting to note that Canada was the second major exporter followed by Norway. Some of the large Canadian oil and gas companies are:

Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO)
Petro-Canada (PCZ)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ)
Suncor Energy Inc. (SU)
EnCana Corp. (ECA)

Malaysia ranked number eight in natural gas exports. It must be noted that Malaysia is a net exporter of both oil and natural gas.

Comments

[berated:]

Thanks for the article/chart; very interesting to see the relative rankings.

And, just a note to those not already aware of it, SU expects to complete the acquisition of PCZ by Aug 1.

Jul 31 07:52 AM

[jerrydd:]

Every time you buy oil $.40 of every $ goes to Iran, Russia, oil dictators and terrorists, basically our enemies.

Yet by not putting the full, true cost of oil in them we subsidize them, big oil to hurt us and their people, others by $500B last yr and $1T in 2 yrs if we don't do something.

We need to put the cost of our Persian Gulf military, oil wars, tax breaks, depletion allowances, sweetheart royalty deals, balance of payments costs in oil so it pays it's way.

With a $1.50/gal oil tax would make the world oil price drop so our enemies would pay most of the cost and we could get a tax cut and help switching over to more eff cars, trucks, EV's, plug in hybrids and NG semi's. The $500B-$1t/yr we would keep here rather than paying our enemies could make us much better off, more jobs and profits.

Energy independence is not a technical one but a political one of corporate welfare for big oil we can no longer afford. By doing it we will be much stronger, richer, better economy and the world much better off we need to do now. Then we can have a real free market instead of a crooked one,

So do we continue to be traitors or will we be patriotic? Your choice. Call your congress person today.

Jul 31 09:34 AM

[Ferdinand E...:]

Useful in a way, but the situation behind these figures is more useful. Russia is a very rich country that many persons associated with this site like to think of as being a poor-house. And their riches are not just measured in oil and gas. Their new nuclear technology is going to be sold by the Germans - instead of the other way around - and they have some of the best agricultural land in the world.

Of course they might make the mistake of turning to people like George W. and Condoleeza for advice, in which case they will have to wait another century to get the country that they want , but if they keep their cool, when the global macroeconomy turns up it should be springtime for them. And I'm glad.

Jul 31 09:35 AM

[A Barrel Full:]

In 2008, Russia actually overtook Saudi Arabia to become the largest exporter of Oil, as well as being number one in Gas.

Jul 31 10:02 AM

[blu:]

This is the most current data??????
Just shows how pathetic the accounting for oil supply, demand, and reserves remains. The oil and gas markets operate on unreliable and outdated information. That exacerbates price volatility that is fueled further by the peak oil scenario.

Jul 31 11:03 AM

[Jonathan S ...:]

For more up-to-date information interested readers can review the charts from the Energy Export Databrowser.

This site uses data from the 2009 BP Statistical Review which was released in June.

Jul 31 01:54 PM

[Mad Hedge F...:]

Listen to this. “What’s happening in shale gas is that in three years we’ve gone from a nine year reserve life to a hundred year reserve life,” said Steve Farris, CEO of independent oil and gas production and exploration company Apache (APA).

Jul 31 05:16 PM

[Homer II:]

Jerydd says, "We need to put the cost of our Persian Gulf military, oil wars, tax breaks, depletion allowances, sweetheart royalty deals, balance of payments costs in oil so it pays it's way."

Thats a good way to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs too. It wouldn't take much more tax grabbing by the greedy government (who can't even balance their budgets, curb spending) to encourage more corporations like XOM, COP, CVX to move their HQs off to some foreign country, register as a corporation there, and leave US tax burden behind forever. And then, who would the quickly growing Obama debts be paid by??

Aug 01 12:33 AM

[Eye Forget:]

"Russia is a very rich country that many persons associated with this
site like to think of as being a poor-house."

They've been a very rich country for centuries. What do they have to show for it?

Aug 01 07:09 AM