The oil and gas industry has a huge impact on the global economy. Almost all the sectors of economy rely on oil and gas, which is one of the major energy sources for a variety of industrial and commercial activities. The transport, manufacturing, power generating and other industries all relies on the oil and gas to provide them with heat, mechanical or electrical energy.
Most oil producing countries generate a lot of revenue from their exports. In fact, some countries rely entirely on oil and gas exports for their revenue. However, the industry is also volatile and dependent on global politics, safety accdients, and other financial activities.
Please see below for the 11 most surprising stats about the oil and gas industry.
The following are the five largest oil companies in the world. These are headquartered in Russia, USA, China and the UK
| Gazprom | Russia |
| Rosneft | Russia |
| ExxonMobil | USA |
| PetroChina | China |
| BP | UK |
About twenty or so oil producing countries have doubled their production over the last five years. This includes the biggest oil producers such as Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and others.
The USA produced 12.7 million bpd of crude oil in 2015, this is the highest amount ever recorded in the USA and which earned it the first position globally. The second position was occupied by Saudi Arabia with 12.0 million bpd.
Oil and gas industry has the highest number of workplace deaths resulting from explosions and fires. The fires, which occur at drilling sites and other areas, are preventable though. But this would require strictly adhering to the safety standards and regular inspections and performing preventive maintenance for the entire oil and gas industry.
USA has 28 % of the top 25 companies followed by Russia at 21 %, China 12 %, EU companies 20% and Canada 8%.
Other than the USA, Russia dominates the list of the 25 world’s largest public oil and gas companies. As such Russia, which has been one the world’s major oil and gas producer, accounts for a bigger percentage of the global oil production. The oil companies in Russia took advantage of the privatization that took place in 1990s. The Russians formed a few, but very large oil and gas companies that have continued to rival others in the world.
During the period 2014 – 2015, when oil prices were very low, about 20 percent of oil fields located in the United Kingdom were producing their oil at higher cost than the selling price of $50 per barrel.
The total global crude oil production in the year 2015 increased by 2.8 million barrels per day. USA led with an increase of 1 million bpd, while OPEC added 1.6 million.
Iran has over 15 percent of the total global natural gas reserves. However, it exports less than one percent to the global market, preferring to consume most of their gas.
The global annual gas demand in 2014 was 3500 billion cubic meters (about 3.5 trillion cubic meters) and expected to increase at an annual rate of 2% up to the year 2020. OECD Europe consumed 458 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, enough to fill about 180 million Olympic-size swimming pools.
The largest 10 oil companies were producing about 40 million barrels per day in 2015. This accounts for over 40 % of world’s total production.
The oil and gas industry is seven times more dangerous than the other industries. There are 4679 workers who died on the job in the USA in 2014, 142 were in the oil and industry. This represents a 3 percent of total deaths despite the fact that the industry employs less than one percent of all the workers. Improving safety is a must in the oil and gas industry, emerging inspection technologies using drones can significantly reduce the risks during the process.