Oil Reserves in the World

Where does the United States rank in oil reserves, according to Donald Trump?

Donald J. Trump frequently says the United States has more oil than any other country. In his speech at the 2024 Republican convention he said, “And remember, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country by far.”

Presumably he is speaking about reserves. In the industry, there is the term proved reserves. This is, from BP, “generally taken to be those quantities that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.” ⁽¹⁾BP: Statistical Review of World Energy 2021. https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf

The nearby table holding data from BP shows that the United States does not have the most proved reserves. It is ninth in the world, having less than one-fourth the reserves of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Other agencies have produced similar data. ⁽²⁾List of countries by proven oil reserves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves