TOTAL PRODUCTION BY THE TOP FIVE OIL MAJORS HAS FALLEN BY A QUARTER SINCE 2004

"The combined crude oil production of the five main international oil companies (Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron and Total) hit an historic high in 2004. Since then, it has fallen by 25.8%, despite large increases in investments. Total crude oil produced by the majors was 10.760 million barrels per day (MB/D) in 2004. In 2012, it reached only 7.981 MB/D. It has decreased by 2.779 MB/D in 8 years (-1/4) ... Worldwide crude oil production rose by 4% between 2004 and 2011. It has hardly increased at all since 2006, however: since then it has been on an undulating plateau, within a small margin of less than 1.25% ... OPEC is now content with a little over 40% of worldwide production. But it controls more than 70% of the planet's proven reserves. Consequently, as the known oil fields are getting depleted, production should become more and more concentrated in the major OPEC countries, starting (or finishing) with Saudi Arabia, as well as, to a lesser extent, in the former Soviet Union. It seems unlikely for the moment that the development of non-conventional and extreme sources of oil, in particular shale hydrocarbons, will be able to change that fact."

Zum übersetzten Artikel von Matthieu Auzanneau, erschienen auf The Oil Drum (19. April 2013) »

Anmerkung: An dieser Stelle sei auf die Abbildungen von Dr. Werner Zittel "Big Oil Production Figures" vom 22. November 2012 hingewiesen. Diese stellen eine Analyse der großen westlichen Ölfirmen ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Texaco, ENI, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Repsol/YFP dar, und zeigen, dass deren Förderung in Summe seit 2004 um 20% zurückgegangen ist. Ausgaben für Exploration und Förderung haben sich dabei seit 2000 um mehr als den Faktor fünf erhöht.