Proved oil reserves remain sufficient to meet more than 50 years of global production; the North American Shale Revolution added 15% technically recoverable oil and gas resources
The substantial decline in the value of crude oil at the end of 2014 had very little impact on the amount of proved oil reserves in the world, BP (ticker: BP) said in its 2016 Statistical Review of World Energy Wednesday. Proved oil reserves fell 2.4 billion barrels, or 0.1%, in 2015, marking only the second time reserves have decreased in the 65 years the company has produced the annual review.
Global proved oil reserves in 2015 were 1,697.6 billion barrels. That number represents a 24% increase over the last decade, and is enough to meet 50.7 years of global production, BP said in its report.
BP's chief economist, Spencer Dale, said investment in oil and gas fell $160 billion in 2015, roughly 25%, and could fall further this year. Dale sees investment declining an additional $50 billion in 2016 as the world oil price continues to slowly recover.
"You'll have to go back to the late 1970s to see such a sharp fall in investments," Dale told reporters.
Even with the steep decline in investment, production still increased 3.2% to 91.67 MMBOPD driven by U.S. shale oil production, as well as Iraq and Saudi Arabia. BP estimates that the shale revolution in North America increased technically-recoverable oil and gas resources by 15%.
Brazil recorded the largest decline with proved reserves falling by 3.2 billion barrels, while Norwegian proved reserves grew by 1.5 billion barrels. On a regional basis, South & Central American reserves have the highest reserves-to-production ratio among those included in BP's review at 117 years.
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Source: BP
OPEC countries continue to hold the largest share (71.4%) of global proved reserves, with the Middle East holding 47.3% of total global oil reserves. North America's share of global reserves has grown to 14% in 2015 from 11.3% in 1995, but is down 2.3% from 2005.
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Source: BP
Natural gas shows the same trend
BP's analysis found that natural gas reserves fell by 0.1% in 2015 as well. Global proved natural gas reserves declined 0.1 trillion cubic meters to 186.9 Tcm. This amount of natural gas is still enough to meet global production for 52.8 years, the company said. The Middle East region holds the largest proved reserves (42.8% of the global total), and has the highest reserves-to-production ratio at 129.5 years.
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Source: BP
"This is truly the age of plenty," Dale said.
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