Global Primary Energy Reserves
The most important global energy sources consist of coal, petroleum oil and natural gas. The current availability of these main primary energy reserves are given in the succeeding sections.
- Coal : The proven global coal reserve has been estimated to be 9,84,453 million tonnes. The USA had the largest share of the global reserve (25.4%) followed by Russia (15.9%). China (11.6%). India was as 4 in the list with 8.6%.
- Petroleum oll : The global available reserve of Petroleum Oils was estimated to be 1147 billion barrels. Saudi Arabia had the largest share of the reserve with almost 23%. (One barrel of oil is approximately 160 litres).
- Gas : Third in the order is Natural Gas. The global proven gas reserve was estimate to be 176 trillion cubic metres. Russian accounts for the largest share of the reserve with almost 27%. It may be borne in mind that, World oil and gas reserves are estimated to last for 45 years and 65 years respectively. Coal is likely to last a little over 200 years.