World petroleum reserves

Coal is the giant of fossil fuel resources. World reserves are many times those of petroleum, and the United States is one of the major resource holders. Coal can be used directly in combustion or converted to gas or liquid. Only combustion consumes significant amounts of coal today. 

U.S. dependence upon imported oil could grow faster depending on oil availability. The petroleum reserves in the U.S. could be depleted more rapidly but U.S. reserves, which were once about as large as Saudi Arabia s, have been depleted to the point where some believe that we now have less than 3% of the world s remaining oil reserves. The U.S. uses oil at a rate that amounts to more than 25% of the world s production, but both U.S. and world reserves have been growing as improved recovery techniques are applied to older fields. 

Many of the feedstocks for the chemical industry, especially aromatic hydrocarbons, were originally obtained as by-products from the carbonization of coal. (1,2) However, nowadays, most of these chemical feedstocks are derived from petroleum. Nevertheless, it is probable that, within the next few decades, the shortage of world reserves of petroleum will mean that BTX will once again have to be produced from coal, as will ethylene. It is, therefore, appropriate to examine ways in which these materials can be produced from coal the present investigation was designed to study the formation of BTX and ethylene by the thermal cracking of coal-derived materials from the NCB coal liquefaction/hydrogenation processes. (3)... 

Natural gas, in recent years, has become an international commodity fuel. Current world reserves of natural gas are estimated at about 5000 tcf, the equivalent of about 40 percent of world petroleum energy reserves. About 35 percent of these reserves are in remote regions of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and about 40 percent are located in the Persian Gulf countries of the Middle East. 

Already, the gaseous fuels account for approximately 40 percent of world petroleum energy production and nearly one-half of world petroleum energy reserves. Moreover, the growth of world natural gas consumption is already increasing rapidly. 

The proven petroleum reserve estimate in Kuwait is 96.85 billion barrels. This accounts for 10% of world reserves. Natural gas wells are 1500 billion cubic meters. The annual volume of natural gas extraction is 7.8 billion cubic meters. The oil-extracting capacity is 2.35 million barrels per day. In 1998, Kuwait extracted 101 million barrels of petroleum from its wells. It was expected that there would be the potential to bring the extraction to 2.5 million barrels per day at the end of 2000 and up to three million barrels per day by 2005. Two thirds of the extracted petroleum is exported, 20% is exported to the USA, 50% to Southeast Asian and Japan. 

OECD). Two-thirds of the world s remaining oil reserves are located within member nations of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) (ElA 2003b). Natural gas reserves follow a similar distribution pattern. Only 10% of the world reserves are located in OECD nations. The rest is located mainly in OPEC countries (just under one-half) and Russia (one-third) (ElA 2003b). Coal reserves, however, are more plentiful, and distributed in other parts of the world. Approximately three-quarters of the world s coal reserves are found in North America, Asia, Oceania, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union (EIA 2003b). 

It is difficult to make a significant estimate of the total world reserves of sulfur because of the wide variety of forms in which it occurs. Reserves may total 1.4 x 10 tonnes [83]. Total resources are probably about 5.0 x 10 tonnes, to 7.5 x 10 tonnes, of which more than 99% is present in coal, oil shales, and gypsum these are materials that do not make a significant contributton to present world production. World resources of elemental sulfur in evaporite, volcanic deposits, and sulfur associated vnth natural gas, petroleum, tar sands, and metal sulfides may amount to about 5, x 10 tonnes (Table 5.22). 

The sources of organic compounds are carbon-containing raw materials—petroleum and natural gas, coal, carbohydrates, fats, and oils. In the United States we produce more than 250 billion pounds of organic chemicals from these sources, which amounts to about 1100 pounds per year for every man, woman, and child. About 90% of this 250 billion pounds comes from petroleum and natural gas. Because world reserves of petroleum and natural gas are finite, we will sometime have to rely on other sources to make the vast amount of organic substances that we depend on. 

Arabia (10), which is about 18% of that country s reserves. In some regions, a large portion of the reserves may not be contained in the largest field. However, the largest field usually contains more than 10% of the total reserves of a region. More than 20,000 petroleum fields have been discovered worldwide, and more than half of the world s proved reserves of 160.1 x 10 (1006.8 x 10 bbl) of petroleum are contained in only the 51 largest fields... 

The key factor influencing the varying interpretations is that although there is an enormous volume of petroleum resources in the ground throughout the world, it is found in deposits that differ in quaUty and quantity from country to country. Only a small fraction of these resources are conventional petroleum resources (160.1 x 10 m (1006.8 x 10 bbl)) and are in the category of proved reserves. An additional... 

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