As the industry extends its reach, the quest is becoming more arduous. The cost of producing new oil and gas is rising fast, and companies are plagued by worsening delays. Drilling rigs are scarce. Engineers, geologists, and petroleum specialists are in critically short supply. And the politics of oil and gas are getting trickier

This is OPEC's official statistical bulletin. Table 9 is the most interesting, in that during the mid 1980s all the OPEC countries reserves suddenly shot up. Table 7 is also interesting, because it bellies the common conception that OPEC countries are getting absurdly wealthy on oil profits.

The United States Geological Survey has made periodic assessments of the world's oil reserves, but they are fundamentally flawed in a number of ways.

A link to the official statistics published by the US government regarding oil reserves around the world.

As oil prices remain volatile the markets do their best to forecast future prices. Unfortunately this is not an easy task. While it may appear extraordinary to outsiders one of the main problems in the oil market is the reliability of basic statistics.