List of Countries By Natural Gas Proven Reserves

This is a list of countries by natural gas proven reserves based on The World Factbook. Based on data from BP at the end of 2009 proved gas reserves are dominated by three countries: Russia (24%), Iran (16%) and Qatar (14%). A study by Gaffney, Cline & Associates estimates Turkmenistan’s South Iolotan natural gas field reserve at 21.2 trillion cubic meters (tcm) - far above the BP estimate of 2.9 tcm for this field. This places Turkmenistan's reserves at 25.8 tcm, ahead of Qatar but still behind Iran. Due to constant announcements of shale gas recoverable reserves, as well as drilling in Central Asia, South America and Africa, deepwater drilling, estimates are undergoing frequent updates, with bias towards increases.

There is large discussion about the potential of shale gas reserves and large doubt about their economic and environmental sustainability, but it is clear that most of those reservoirs are still to be developed and discovered. In that sense the inventory of the gas proven reserves is likely to increase of size within the next years.

Rank Country/Region Natural gas
proven reserves
(m³)
% of total Date of
information
Total World 300,000,000,000,000 100% 1 January 2012 est.
1 Russia 55,000,000,000,000 18.3% 2010 est.
2 Iran 33,500,000,000,000 11.1% 1 January 2011 est.
3 Turkmenistan 26,200,000,000,000 8.73% 1 January 2012 est.
4 Qatar 25,470,000,000,000 8.5% 1 January 2010 est.
5 United States 9,000,000,000,000 3.0% 1 January 2011 est.
6 Saudi Arabia 8,200,000,000,000 2.73% 1 January 2012 est.
7 Azerbaijan 6,071,000,000,000 2.02% 1 January 2010 est.
8 Venezuela 5,524,500,000,000 1.84% 19 July 2011
9 Nigeria 5,246,000,000,000 1.75% 1 January 2010 est.
10 Algeria 4,502,000,000,000 1.37% 1 January 2010 est.
11 Australia 3,825,000,000,000 1.27% 1 January 2012 est.
12 Iraq 3,600,000,000,000 1.17% 1 January 2012 est.
13 China 3,100,000,000,000 1.02% 1 January 2012 est.
14 Indonesia 3,001,000,000,000 1.58% 1 January 2010 est.
15 Kazakhstan 2,407,000,000,000 1.27% 1 January 2010 est.
16 Malaysia 2,350,000,000,000 1.24% 1 January 2010 est.
17 Norway 2,313,000,000,000 1.22% 1 January 2010 est.
18 United Arab Emirates 2,250,000,000,000 1.18% 1 January 2010 est.
19 Uzbekistan 1,841,000,000,000 0.97% 1 January 2010 est.
20 Kuwait 1,798,000,000,000 0.95% 1 January 2010 est.
21 Canada 1,754,000,000,000 0.92% 1 January 2010 est.
22 Egypt 1,656,000,000,000 0.87% 1 January 2010 est.
23 Libya 1,539,000,000,000 0.81% 1 January 2010 est.
24 Netherlands 1,416,000,000,000 0.74% 1 January 2010 est.
25 Ukraine 1,104,000,000,000 0.58% 1 January 2010 est.
26 India 1,075,000,000,000 0.57% 1 January 2010 est.
27 Oman 849,500,000,000 0.45% 1 January 2010 est.
28 Pakistan 840,200,000,000 0.44% 1 January 2010 est.
29 Israel 800,000,000,000 0.42% 1 January 2012 est.
30 Lebanon 750,400,000,000 0.39% 1 January 2010 est.
31 Romania 726,000,000,000 0.39% 1 January 2013 est.
32 Vietnam 680,000,000,000 0.36% 1 January 2010 est.
33 Yemen 478,500,000,000 0.25% 1 January 2010 est.
34 Trinidad and Tobago 436,100,000,000 0.23% 1 January 2010 est.
35 Argentina 398,400,000,000 0.21% 1 January 2010 est.
36 Brunei 390,800,000,000 0.21% 1 January 2010 est.
37 Brazil 364,200,000,000 0.19% 1 January 2010 est.
38 Mexico 359,700,000,000 0.19% 1 January 2010 est.
39 Thailand 342,000,000,000 0.18% 1 January 2010 est.
40 Peru 334,100,000,000 0.18% 1 January 2010 est.
41 United Kingdom 292,000,000,000 0.15% 1 January 2010 est.
42 Burma 283,200,000,000 0.15% 1 January 2010 est.
43 Angola 271,800,000,000 0.14% 1 January 2010 est.
44 Syria 240,700,000,000 0.13% 1 January 2010 est.
45 Papua New Guinea 226,500,000,000 0.12% 1 January 2010 est.
46 Timor-Leste 200,000,000,000 0.10% 1 January 2010 est.
47 Bangladesh 195,400,000,000 0.10% 1 January 2010 est.
48 Germany 175,600,000,000 0.09% 1 January 2010 est.
49 Poland 164,800,000,000 0.09% 1 January 2010 est.
50 Cameroon 135,100,000,000 0.07% 1 January 2010 est.
51 Mozambique 127,400,000,000 0.07% 1 January 2010 est.
52 Colombia 112,000,000,000 0.06% 1 January 2010 est.
53 Philippines 108,700,000,000 0.06% 1 January 2010 est.
54 Chile 97,970,000,000 0.05% 1 January 2010 est.
55 Bahrain 92,030,000,000 0.05% 1 January 2010 est.
56 Congo, Republic of the 90,610,000,000 0.05% 1 January 2010 est.
57 Sudan 84,950,000,000 0.04% 1 January 2010 est.
58 Cuba 70,790,000,000 0.04% 1 January 2010 est.
59 Italy 69,830,000,000 0.04% 1 January 2010 est.
60 Tunisia 65,130,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
66 Namibia 62,290,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
64 Denmark 61,300,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
65 Rwanda 56,630,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
66 Korea, South 50,000,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
67 Afghanistan 49,550,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
68 Serbia 48,140,000,000 0.03% 1 January 2010 est.
69 Equatorial Guinea 36,810,000,000 0.02% 1 January 2010 est.
70 New Zealand 33,980,000,000 0.02% 1 January 2010 est.
71 Croatia 30,580,000,000 0.02% 1 January 2010 est.
72 Cote d'Ivoire 28,320,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
73 Mauritania 28,320,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
74 Gabon 28,320,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
75 Ethiopia 24,920,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
76 Austria 24,800,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
77 Ghana 22,650,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
78 Japan 20,900,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
79 Slovakia 14,160,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
80 Ireland 9,911,000,000 0.01% 1 January 2010 est.
81 Georgia 8,495,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
82 Hungary 8,098,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
83 Ecuador 7,985,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
84 France 7,079,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
85 Tanzania 6,513,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
86 Taiwan 6,229,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
87 Turkey 6,088,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
88 Jordan 6,031,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
89 Bulgaria 5,663,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
90 Tajikistan 5,663,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
91 Somalia 5,663,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
92 Kyrgyzstan 5,663,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
93 Czech Republic 3,072,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
94 Guatemala 2,960,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
95 Belarus 2,832,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
96 Spain 2,548,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
97 Morocco 1,501,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
98 Benin 1,133,000,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
99 Congo, Democratic Republic of the 991,100,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
100 Greece 991,100,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
101 Albania 849,500,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
102 Barbados 113,300,000 0.00% 1 January 2010 est.
103 South Africa 27,160,000 0.00% 1 January 2006 est.
104 Macau 300,000 0.00% 1 January 2008 est.
  • Star denotes includes "recoverable portion of shale reserves"

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