NON-OPEC FACT SHEET

Non-OPEC is the entire world outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) -- i.e., all countries except Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

Non-OPEC Overview

Non-OPEC countries contain less than one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves but produce nearly 60 percent of the world's oil. They also possess most of the world's capacity for refining crude oil into petroleum products such as gasoline and heating oil. Because non-OPEC countries have smaller reserves which are being depleted more rapidly than in OPEC, their overall reserves-to-production ratio -- an indicator of how long proven reserves would last at current production rates -- is much lower (about 14 years for non-OPEC and 73 years for OPEC). In the future, non-OPEC production is expected to increase less rapidly than in OPEC and, as a result, shrink to less than 50 percent of total world oil production by 2015 (see EIA's International Energy Outlook 1997).

The oil industries in non-OPEC countries differ from those of OPEC countries in several fundamental ways:

Markets. Whereas most OPEC oil is produced for export, many non-OPEC countries, such as the United States, produce oil primarily to meet their domestic demand for petroleum. Nevertheless, non-OPEC countries as a group account for about 45 percent of crude oil trade worldwide.

Industry Ownership. OPEC countries generally have state-owned and state-operated oil industries. Although some non-OPEC countries (e.g., China, Mexico) also have state industries, most either already have a private sector oil industry or are promoting increased private investment in their oil industries (see EIA's report on Privatization and the Globalization of Energy Markets).

Finding Costs. Non-OPEC oil reserves generally cost more to develop and produce than OPEC reserves. Based on data collected from major U.S. companies with overseas operations, finding costs in the Middle East (where OPEC countries control most of the region's oil reserves) averaged just over $2/barrel compared with about $4.50/barrel in the United States and western Europe, and $5.75/barrel in Canada (see EIA's Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers 1995 ). Individual OPEC countries have significantly lower costs (e.g., less than $1/barrel in Venezuela).

Excess Capacity. Non-OPEC producers typically operate close to capacity, thus they have a relatively limited ability to boost production without significant additional investments. Nearly all of the world's excess production capacity is in OPEC countries.

Oil Reserves and Production in Non-OPEC Countries

Current non-OPEC production is concentrated in seven countries, each of which produced between 1.9 million and 6.4 million barrels/day of crude oil in 1997. Together, these countries account for about 60 percent of non-OPEC production and for more than 60 percent of non-OPEC proven oil reserves. Of these, the United States and Russia are the largest producers, and Russia and Mexico have the largest reserves.

While Russia, Mexico, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Canada are net exporters to the world oil market, the United States and China must import additional oil to meet high oil demand in their domestic markets.

Also shown are Azerbaijan and Kazahkstan, which have extensive reserves but currently low production levels. The ratio of reserves to production in each of these countries is, therefore, significantly higher than in the major oil-producing countries shown here.

The remaining sources of non-OPEC oil are highly diversified and include 13 countries producing 0.3-0.9 million barrels/day. These countries all have proven oil reserves in the range of 1-6 billion barrels.

Other non-OPEC countries with active oil industries producing at least 100,000 barrels/day each include: Brunei, Cameroon, Congo, Denmark, Italy, Peru, Romania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Together, these countries with combined proven oil reserves of about 9 billion barrels produced a combined total of about 1.5 million barrels/day in 1997.

Links to other sites:
EIA Country Analysis Briefs
EIA International Petroleum Statistics Report (latest month)
EIA OPEC Fact Sheet
EIA International Petroleum Data

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File last modified: March 4, 1998

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