Why is the Middle East rich in oil?

Since the end of February, when the US and Israel began attacks on Iran, world markets have fluctuated. Prolonged conflict and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz caused oil prices to increase and global supply chains and trade to be disrupted. This highlights the important role the Middle East plays in the global energy system.

Oil was first commercially discovered in the Middle East in 1908, when a column of oil erupted 24 m at Masjid Suleiman in Persia (now southwestern Iran). According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Middle East currently owns many oil and gas resources with the lowest exploitation costs in the world. In 2024, this place will provide about 30% of global oil production and 17% of global natural gas production, most of which comes from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and the UAE.

“The combination of many geological factors causes the Middle East to have huge oil and gas reserves on both sides of the Persian Gulf,” Mark Allen, professor of Earth sciences at Durham University, told Scientific American.

Today, the Middle East is famous for its hot deserts and arid landscapes. But about 50-250 million years ago, there existed a large ocean called Tethys. Located between the two ancient continents of Gondwana and Laurasia, this ocean teems with life, from plankton, coral reefs, and fish, to cephalopods and marine reptiles.

As the tectonic plates shift, the African and Arabian plates gradually collide with the Eurasian plate. The slow collision caused Tethys to shrink and eventually close, creating a giant biological cemetery buried under what is now the Middle East.

Normally, dead organisms will decompose and disappear. But follow Public Edunder some conditions, especially when oxygen levels are low, organic material can accumulate faster than it can decompose. Over millions of years buried under many layers of sediment such as sand, clay, limestone with gradually increasing pressure and temperature, organic materials are transformed into hydrocarbons – the main components of crude oil and natural gas.

Thanks to a combination of favorable geological factors, the Middle East possesses some of the world’s largest oil fields. According to Guinness World Records, the Ghawar field in eastern Saudi Arabia is the largest conventional oil field on the planet. Discovered in 1948, the 5,260 square kilometer field is estimated to contain more than 70 billion barrels of oil with an output of about 4 million barrels per day.

However, this is only part of the reason why the Middle East has become a “giant” in global oil production. In fact, the country with the world’s largest oil reserves is not located here. According to statistics from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2024, this title belongs to Venezuela with 303 billion barrels, accounting for about 17% of global reserves. Saudi Arabia ranked second with 267 billion barrels, followed by Iran (208 billion barrels), Iraq (145 billion barrels) and UAE (113 billion barrels). Canada has the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves, 163 billion barrels, but most come from oil sands, which are not included in OPEC data.

There are many different forms of petroleum. According to IFL ScienceVenezuelan oil is “thick and sticky”, making exploitation difficult and processing costs high. Meanwhile, the majority of oil in the Middle East is described as “light and sweet”, making it much more attractive to the market. They are also located in relatively shallow sediments that are easy to mine from the surface.

Public Ed appreciate the quality and accessibility of the Middle East’s oil reservoir. In many places, such as the North American shale basins, oil extraction requires advanced techniques such as hydraulic fracturing. But in the Middle East, mines are often large, high pressure and simple geological structures. In some cases, initially drilled wells may allow oil to spontaneously rise to the surface thanks to underground pressure.

These favorable conditions help the Middle East hold about 50% of the world’s remaining exploitable oil reserves, while also being one of the regions with the lowest oil production costs. This has contributed to shaping the global energy market over the past decades.