Crude Oil aka “Black Gold” and Natural Gas are two of the major commodities that are traded heavily in the international commodity markets. Countries that are blessed with these resources accumulate great wealth as the prices of oil and natural gas go up. Russia, for example, reaped huge profits in recent years when price of crude oil soared. Conversely the Russian markets fell hard last year when crude prices fell dramatically.
While most people know that the Middle East holds most of the world’s oil reserves, not many of us know what countries exactly export the most of the oil produced.The same applies to natural gas as well. So I did some research to find out the answers.
The Top 10 Oil and Natural Gas Exporting Countries in 2007 were:
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Source: Facts – 2009, The Norwegian Petroleum Sector
Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, NorwayÂ
Note: The latest data available is for 2007
Saudi Arabia was the largest exporter of oil at 8.1 Million per day. Russia came in at second. Norway ranked fifth with 2.3M barrels per day. StatoilHydro ASA (STO) is one of the largest Norwegian oil and gas companies that is active in many countries.
Russia was the largest exporter of natural gas. It is interesting to note that Canada was the second major exporter followed by Norway. Some of the large Canadian oil and gas companies are:
Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO)
Petro-Canada (PCZ)
Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNQ)
Suncor Energy Inc. (SU)
EnCana Corp. (ECA)
Malaysia ranked number eight in natural gas exports. It must be noted that Malaysia is a net exporter of both oil and natural gas.
