World's Top 22 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2011 -- OGJ

by Aaron and David Rachovich

Estimated Proved Reserves of Natural Gas

Rank	Country	Proved reserves (billion cubic feet), Jan 1, 2011	Proved reserves (billion cubic feet), Jan 1, 2010	Share of  total, Jan 1, 2011
1.	Russia	1,680,000	1,680,000	25.3%
2.	Iran*	1,045,670	1,045,670	15.7%
3.	Qatar*	895,800	899,325	13.5%
4.	Saudi Arabia*	275,200	263,000	4.1%
5.	Turkmenistan	265,000	265,000	4.0%
6.	United States	244,656	244,656	3.7%
7.	United Arab Emirates*	227,900	214,400	3.4%
8.	Nigeria*	186,880	185,280	2.8%
9.	Venezuela*	178,860	175,970	2.7%
10.	Algeria*	159,000	159,000	2.4%
11.	Iraq*	111,940	111,940	1.7%
12.	Australia	110,000	110,000	1.7%
13.	China	107,000	107,000	1.6%
14.	Indonesia	106,000	106,000	1.6%
15.	Kazakhstan	85,000	85,000	1.3%
16.	Malaysia	83,000	83,000	1.2%
17.	Egypt	77,200	58,500	1.2%
18.	Norway	72,000	81,680	1.1%
19.	Uzbekistan	65,000	65,000	1.0%
20.	Kuwait*	63,000	63,000	0.9%
21.	Canada	61,950	61,950	0.9%
22.	Libya*	54,680	54,362	0.8%
Top 22 countries		6,155,736	6,119,733	92.6%
Rest of world		491,605	489,613	7.4%
World total		6,647,341	6,609,346	100.0%
Total OPEC**		3,211,152	3,182,829	48.3%

* OPEC member. Data for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia exclude one-half of the reserves in the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia Neutral Zone. Neutral Zone contains 1,000 bcf, i.e. 1 tcf, of gas reserves.

**Including also Angola, Ecuador and the Neutral Zone.

Source: "Special Report � Worldwide Look at Reserves and Production," Oil & Gas Journal, Dec 6, 2010.

(For the world's technically recoverable gas resources figure/estimate, including shale gas resources, please see my post "World Shale Gas Resources Outside US Assessed," here. Also, please see Aaron and David Rachovich, "World's Top 21 Natural Gas Producers, 2005-2010 -- BP," here and our post "World's Top 22 Proven Oil Reserves Holders, Jan 1, 2011 -- OGJ," here. Furthermore, please see "World's Top 23 Proven Oil Reserves Holders, Jan 1, 2012 -- OGJ" and "World's Top 15 Natural Gas Proven Reserve Holders, Jan 1, 2012 -- OGJ." -- D.R.)