oil

United States | 13.6 Million Barrels Per Day
The U.S. did not merely rank first in 2025. It produced more crude oil than any country at any point in history.
U.S. crude oil and lease-condensate output averaged a record 13.6 million barrels per day, approximately 40% more than Russia and Saudi Arabia. Monthly production reached a new record of 13.93 million barrels per day in April.
The Permian Basin is the engine of this transformation. The region, found in Texas and New Mexico, produced some 6.6 million barrels per day in 2025, accounting for nearly half of total U.S. crude output.
Horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, private mineral rights, deep capital markets and a highly competitive oilfield-services industry reversed what once appeared to be a permanent decline in American production.
The shale revolution was not directed by a central committee. It was build by geologists, engineers, entrepreneurs and investors willing to risk capital.
America is now also a leading exporter of crude, gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products. That strengthens the nation’s trade position and supports high-paying jobs.
Russia | 9.9 Million Barrels Per Day
Russia held second place with production of roughly 9.9 million barrels per day in 2025, despite sanctions, voluntary production cuts and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The country has successfully redirected much of its crude trade toward Asia. In June, China purchased half of Russia’s crude exports, while India bought more than one-third.
Attacks on Russian refineries have also reduced domestic processing capacity, pushing additional unrefined crude toward export terminals.
The longer-term outlook is less certain. Russia’s mature fields are becoming more difficult to maintain, while sanctions restrict access to Western technology and capital.
Russia remains an oil superpower, but maintaining today’s production levels may become increasingly difficult and expensive
Saudi Arabia | 9.6 Million Barrels Per Day
Saudi Arabia remains the most influential country in the global oil market, even though it no longer holds the production crown. Its output rose to approximately 9.6 million barrels per day in 2025 as OPEC+ began unwinding voluntary production cuts.
Saudi Aramco controls more than 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and operates some of the largest, lowest-cost fields ever discovered. Just as important, the kingdom maintains spare production capacity that can be brought online relatively quickly.
Most oil-producing countries pump what they can. Saudi Arabia can sometimes choose not to.
That ability to add or remove barrels gives the kingdom an outsized influence over global prices. Its production decisions remain essential reading for anyone invested in energy or commodities.
Iraq | 4.4 Million Barrels Per Day
Iraq holds an estimated 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the fifth-largest total in the world.
Its fields are large and relatively inexpensive to operate. In theory, Iraq should be able to produce considerably more oil than it does today.
The problem is getting those barrels reliably to market.
Approximately 93% of Iraqi crude exports move through terminals near Basra on the Persian Gulf. When traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted, storage tanks filled and producers were forced to shut in output.
Iraq offers tremendous geological potential, but infrastructure bottlenecks, export vulnerabilities and political disputes continue to limit that advantage.
Canada | 5 Million Barrels Per Day
Canada is the only non-U.S. producer in the top five located entirely within North America. That’s an important advantage in an era of rising geopolitical risk.
Much of Canada’s production comes from Alberta’s oil sands, where thick bitumen is either mined from the surface or recovered underground using steam.
Oil sands projects are expensive to build, but they can operate for decades with relatively low decline rates. That makes them very different from shale wells, which typically require continuous drilling to maintain production.
Canada set another production record in 2025, with crude oil and equivalent volumes averaging 5.35 million barrels per day under the Canadian regulator’s broader measurement. Alberta supplied nearly 84% of the total.
Iran | 4.1 Million Barrels Per Day
Few oil industries have been shaped more by politics than Iran’s.
The country holds the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves, but sanctions, war and limited foreign investments have kept production well below its potential.
Iran produced more than 6 million barrels per day at its peak in the 1970s. Today, its oil trade depends heavily on China and on a complicated network of tankers and intermediaries designed to work around sanctions.
Iran still matters to energy investors because even a modest interruption can move global prices, particularly when tensions threaten the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway is one of the most critical energy chokepoints on the planet.
China | 4.3 Million Barrels Per Day
China is best known as the world’s largest crude oil importer, but it’s also a significant producer.
Beijing spent years pushing its national oil companies to increase domestic output for energy-security reasons. Production rose from approximately 3.8 million barrels per say in 2020 to a record 4.3 million in 2025.
PetroChina remains the country’s largest producer, while CNOOC has generated particularly strong growth from its offshore fields. New discoveries and higher exploration spending have also helped increase national reserves.
Even so, China imported approximately 11.55 million barrels per day in 2025. Aging fields and increasingly expensive unconventional resources suggest domestic production may be approaching an economic ceiling.
Brazil | 3.8 Million Barrels Per Day
Brazil has become one of the world’s most exciting offshore oil stories. Its giant pre-salt fields lie beneath thick layers of salt in deep Atlantic waters, requiring sophisticated technology and enormous amounts of capital to develop.
That investment is paying off. Petrobras, for example, reported that its Búzios field reached a record 1.1 million barrels per day in June. The field represents roughly one-third of the oil production operated by Petrobras in Brazil.
The country is now a major crude exporter, though it continues to import some refined fuels. Brazil offers investors highly productive wells and a growing resource base.
United Arab Emirates | 3.8 Million Barrels Per Day
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) tied Brazil at approximately 3.8 million barrels per day in 2025, but it entered 2026 in a much more aggressive posture.
The country officially left OPEC in May, and since then it’s raised its output to a record 4.1 million barrels per day in June. The move reflected Abu Dhabi’s desire to produce according to its own national interests rather than remain constrained by a quota.
The UAE supplies important Asian markets, including China, India and Japan. It has also invested heavily in pipelines, ports, storage facilities and refining capacity.
During a major supply disruption such as the one in the Strait of Hormuz, that kind of flexibility can be nearly as valuable as the oil itself.
Kuwait | 2.6 Million Barrels Per Day
Kuwait may sit at the bottom of this list, but it’s a heavyweight when measure by what its oil reserves.
The country sits on an estimated 101.5 billion barrels of crude, enough to support current production for roughly a century. Its reserves are also among the lowest-cost in the world.
Nevertheless, Kuwait’s production has slipped below its traditional level of around 3 million barrels per day. The industry is entirely state-owned through Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, and oil accounts for roughly 90% of the country’s government revenue and exports.
Kuwait is a good example of why reserves alone do not tell the whole story. Having an enormous resource and monetizing it efficiently are two different things.
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