Saudi Arabian Oil Production 2011 - 2021

Layth Alkhani
November 10, 2023

Submitted as coursework for PH240, Stanford University, Fall 2023

Introduction

Fig. 1: Graph illustrating the total Oil Value for each year from Table 1. [1] - (Image Source: L. Alkhani)

Saudi Arabia in recent history has become synonymous with the term oil. The country holds approximately 17% of the world's petroleum and serves as one of the world's leading oil producers. The country holds one of the world's highest proven crude oil reserves at 40.9 × 109 tonnes. [1]

If we look at the production of oil per year in Saudi Arabia we can see that the production of oil in the country has slightly decreased every year since 2011. [1] Taking into account the cost of crude oil the value of Saudi Arabian oil production can be calculated for each year since 2011 by taking the number of barrels produced per day and multiplying it by 365 days to get the total production for a calendar year. Then the total production number can be multiplied by the price per barrel in the given year to determine the total value. The total values can then be compared to highlight trends in production value over the past decade.

Data

Year Production Price Total Value % Change From Previous Year
2011 4.04 × 109 bbl y-1 $95.04 bbl-1 $3.84 × 1011 y-1 N/A
2012 4.24 × 109 bbl y-1 $94.13 bbl-1 $3.99 × 1011 y-1 +0.04%
2013 4.16 × 109 bbl y-1 $97.99 bbl-1 $4.08 × 1011 y-1 +0.02%
2014 4.20 × 109 bbl y-1 $93.28 bbl-1 $3.92 × 1011 y-1 -0.04%
2015 4.38 × 109 bbl y-1 $48.71 bbl-1 $2.13 × 1011 y-1 -0.46%
2016 4.53 × 109 bbl y-1 $43.24 bbl-1 $1.96 × 1011 y-1 -0.08%
2017 4.34 × 109 bbl y-1 $50.79 bbl-1 $2.20 × 1011 y-1 +0.12%
2018 4.48 × 109 bbl y-1 $65.20 bbl-1 $2.92 × 1011 y-1 +0.33%
2019 4.32 × 109 bbl y-1 $57.03 bbl-1 $2.46 × 1011 y-1 -0.16%
2020 4.03 × 109 bbl y-1 $39.25 bbl-1 $1.58 × 1011 y-1 -0.36%
2021 4.00 × 109 bbl y-1 $68.10 bbl-1 $2.72 × 1011 y-1 +0.72%
Table 1: Saudi Arabian Oil Production Value 2011 - 2021. [1]

Analysis

Based on the findings we can clearly see that over the last decade the value of Saudi Arabian oil production has continued to fluctuate with a slight negative trend as the total oil production value has not yet returned to the $4.08 × 1011 y-1 high in 2013. [1] The trends can also be viewed visually in Figure 1 where a clear decline in total oil production value is illustrated. This can be attributed to the changes in the price per barrel as opposed to production numbers as since 2011 the number of barrels produced per year has been relatively consistent. [1] These findings prove intriguing, specifically when taking into account Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 campaign where the country states by 2030, it hopes to generate 50% of its electricity from renewables.

© Layth Alkhani. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.

References

[1] "BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022," British Petroleum, June 2022, pp. 16 - 22.