§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on OPEC's oil reserves.[9945]
§ Mr. WilsonOPEC-11 (i.e. including Iraq) proven oil reserves1 are estimated to be around 800 billion barrels, approximately 80 per cent. of proven world reserves (Source: US DoE, Energy Information Administration website). Current OPEC-11 spare oil production capacity is approximately 4.7 million barrels per day, compared to production of 27.2 million barrels per day and world oil demand of around 76 million barrels per day (Source: International Energy Agency, October Oil Market Report). Information on the level of oil stocks held by OPEC countries is not available.
1Proven reserves of oil are generally taken to be those quantities that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.