Saudi Aramco tops global companies by proved oil, gas reserves

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) topped by a significant margin the list of the world's largest oil companies in terms of proven reserves in 2022, according to data collected by Statista from company reports.

Saudi Aramco's oil and gas reserves are estimated at around 259 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This exceeds the combined total reserves of ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp., TotalEnergies SE, Shell plc, BP, and Eni.

Companies' assessments of their proven crude oil and natural gas reserves vary yearly due to revisions from price changes, expansion and discovery of new resources, purchases and sales of reserves, and production.

A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicated a decrease in the proven international oil and natural gas reserves held by 187 publicly traded exploration and production companies by 5.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2022, or 2%, according to the companies' annual financial reports.

In 2020, the proven reserves held by these public companies declined by 9%, primarily due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but reserves increased in 2021.

In 2022, some major oil companies, including TotalEnergies and BP, withdrew from Russia. These divestments reduced the total proven reserves reported by exploration and production companies by 12 billion barrels of oil equivalent that year.