The world's largest economies by 2050: Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is OPEC's most important member and a top-three crude producer. Together, OPEC and OPEC+ pump some 46% of the world's oil, which gives them real power over prices.
“The world’s largest economies by 2050” (Saudi Arabia)
Saudi Arabia produces several grades of crude oil: Arabian Heavy, Arabian Medium, Arabian Light, Arabian Extra Light and Arabian Super Light. According to the US Department of Energy, the world’s largest producer of crude oil is the United States, at 12.9 million barrels a day, followed by Russia with 10.1 million and Saudi Arabia third with 9.7 million barrels a day.
“The world’s largest economies by 2050” (Saudi Arabia)
With its colossal oil reserves, Saudi Arabia is the most important member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). OPEC is an international intergovernmental organisation founded in 1960 by oil-exporting countries to control oil production quotas, with its headquarters in Vienna, the capital of Austria. OPEC currently has 12 members: Algeria (17.2 billion barrels of oil reserves), Venezuela (300 billion bbl), Gabon (2 billion bbl), Iraq (148 billion bbl), Iran (158 billion bbl), Congo (3 billion bbl), Kuwait (100 billion bbl), Libya (54 billion bbl), the UAE (98 billion bbl), Nigeria (43 billion bbl), Saudi Arabia (268 billion bbl) and Equatorial Guinea (1 billion bbl). In December 2023 Angola (6 billion bbl) left OPEC (its departure was due to disagreement with the organisation’s tough production quotas and, most likely, its interest in working within OPEC+).
“The world’s largest economies by 2050” (Saudi Arabia)
OPEC+ is an informal format created in November 2016 out of dissatisfaction among many oil-producing countries with prices on the world market. Recall that the price of Brent crude fell to $30 in January 2016 (the level oil had last seen on 2 April 2004) from a peak of $146 a barrel on 3 July 2008. As for OPEC+ participants, the format comprises 11 countries: Azerbaijan (13 billion barrels of oil reserves), Bahrain (120 million bbl), Brunei (1.1 billion bbl), Brazil (18 billion bbl), Kazakhstan (40 billion bbl), Malaysia (3.6 billion bbl), Mexico (4.7 billion bbl), Oman (4.3 billion bbl), Russia (94 billion bbl) and Sudan plus South Sudan (4.3 billion bbl).
“The world’s largest economies by 2050” (Saudi Arabia)
From the above it follows that the proven oil reserves of the OPEC+ countries amount to 183.1 billion bbl. Although the chart above, for 2022, is a little out of date, with some small adjustments it can be established that the OPEC and OPEC+ countries together produced about 47 million barrels a day out of the 102 million b/d produced worldwide in 2023, or 46% of global daily oil production. That is a very serious force, one able to control and stabilise oil prices, above all to keep them from falling sharply during economic crises and turbulence on world oil markets, and for geopolitical reasons. For example, in April 2023 the OPEC+ countries, together with OPEC proper, agreed a further cut in oil production of 1.65 million b/d. On 30 November 2023 OPEC and OPEC+ decided to cut production by a further 2.2 million b/d. As of today, Brent futures on the oil markets have again fallen to $70-71 a barrel, down from their high for the year: in April 2024 Brent cost about $90 a barrel.