The Worldwide Spread of Oil (1/2)

When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be the Middle East. But petroleum development takes place worldwide. Nigeria, for example, is the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest producer in the world. Russia is the world's second largest exporter of oil and the top exporter of natural gas.

But the country that produces and exports more oil than any other is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis hold one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves.Last year, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries produced about twenty-eight percent of the world's oil supply. The United States Energy Department says they also held fifty-five percent of known reserves.

The other Gulf producers are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Iran has ten percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Iraq is also estimated to have a large supply of oil, and unexplored areas may hold much more.

In nineteen sixty Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Today OPEC has twelve members. The newest is Angola which joined this year.

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每当提及石油，我们首先联想到的或许是中东。但是石油开采也活跃于世界各国。像尼日利亚就是非洲最大的石油生产国，位居世界第十一。俄国是世界第二大石油出口国，其天然气出口量位居世界第一。

然而沙特阿拉伯生产和出口的石油比任何一个国家都要多。它拥有全球4/1的已知石油储备量。去年，沙特阿拉伯和其他一些波斯湾国家出产的石油大约占全球石油供应总量的28％。美国能源局说，这些国家的石油储备量占有全球已知石油储备量的55％。

其他的海湾石油生产国有巴林，伊朗，伊拉克，科威特，卡塔尔和阿拉伯联合酋长国。伊朗拥有全球10％的已知石油储备量。伊拉克估计也有相当大的石油供应量，其中尚未勘测的区域可能拥有更大的石油储备。

1960年，伊朗，伊拉克，科威特，沙特阿拉伯及委内瑞拉成立了石油输出国组织，现已拥有12个成员国，其中安哥拉是今年才加入的最新成员。