National Oil Companies Control 94 Percent of the World’s Oil Reserves20 Jul
The graph below shows that 94 percent of the world’s oil reserves are controlled by national oil companies, such as NIOC (Iran), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Gazprom (Russia), etc. ExxonMobil, BP and other international oil companies own the remaining oil assets. See the two arrows located over BP and ExxonMobil on this graph to comprehend the magnitude of these numbers.
My blog post of July 11, 2011 reported that the United States now imports 60 percent of its crude oil needs. In 11 years that figure will rise to 100 percent based on known reservoir capacities and current withdrawal rates.
These facts demonstrate the rising political and economic importance of oil exporters in contrast to the United States and the urgency to find alternative sources of energy other than crude oil to power over 100 million passenger vehicles and manufacture plastics, fertilizers and roadway pavement materials. The Obama administration should openly acknowledge this problem and create a national level program to secure our energy future. Two billion dollars squandered per week in Afghanistan could be a down payment on this project.