How much oil has been extracted from the ground, since the beginning of the industrial revolution?

[burbguy82]

I have been looking for some more concrete numbers, or as solid as possible, pertaining to the amount of oil that has been extracted from the ground, since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

It seems that there are many estimations out there ,but nothing solid, at least that I have found.

Does anyone have some idea on this number in barrels?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Only estimations as recordkeeping is largely a private matter. My great-grandfather (early-mid 1900's) was a wildcatter and I've seen family photos of new wells where the surrounding soil was saturated with oil. That leakage wasn't recorded.

 

[mccandish]

https://visualizingenergy.org/the-history-of-oil-production-in-the-united-states-2/

Data for above link came from here.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I presume the IEA has this. Too lazy to look - https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-product/monthly-oil-statistics

If not there, maybe OEC?

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I presume the IEA has this. Too lazy to look - https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-product/monthly-oil-statistics

If not there, maybe OEC?

He's looking from the beginning. I assumed he meant going back to the last century.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Ok. The he should be able to get close from here. https://visualizingenergy.org/the-history-of-global-oil-production/

Pre ww2 production was tiny compared to modern amounts.

 

[burbguy82]

The average from what I have seen is 1.5 Trillion barrels since the recorded history of oil production. Is this agreeable?

 

[SC Maintenance]

The average from what I have seen is 1.5 Trillion barrels since the recorded history of oil production. Is this agreeable?

Well, back of napkin.

Current = 83M BPD = 30B barrels per year

From memory end of WW2 was about 30M BPD = 11B Barrels per year.

Lets call that 20B average for the last 70 years (half way between those two) = 20B x 70 years = 1400B so 1.4 Trillion.

Your number passes the smell test I think?

 

[samven]

So if we say 2 trillion going all the way back to beginning of production that would be 84 trillion gallons. For reference Lake Erie is the smallest of the great lakes and it is estimated to contain 127 trillion gallons of water in 10,000 sq miles.