OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2012. Eni presents the eleventh edition of the World Oil and Gas Review, a worldwide statistical review on oil and natural gas reserves, production, consumption, exports and imports.

In 2011, oil reserves grew by 3.6% due to successful exploration in new reservoirs and the better knowledge of producing fields. Since 1995, the proven reserves have increased by approximately 260 billion barrels. The Middle East, an area that has dominated the oil panorama for decades, records greater growth once again. Reserves in Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Ghana and the United States are also in sharp ascent, due to deep water activities and the recent contribution of tight oil onshore.

The increase in the world's oil production (+1.2%) was led as usual by OPEC (+2.9%). However, it has been influenced by political events in Middle Eastern and North African countries, first and foremost Libya and the disappointing performance of some non-OPEC countries.

Global gas consumption has increased by 2.5%, a result from opposite trends: the European Union has seen a dramatic decline in the last year (-10.8%), primarily due to the difficult economic situation and mild climate, compared to 2010, whereas Asian demand (+9.4%) was the main driver for growth in world consumption (especially Japan and China). Consumption growth was also high in Latin America and the Middle East (+4.3% and +7.4%).

A 2% increase in gas reserves is mainly due to new discoveries in Turkmenistan and unconventional gas in the United States, which together with Russia controls 40% of world production. Gas production in the European Union in 2011 recorded a sharp decline -11.5%, compared to 2010.

Global oil consumption increased modestly (+0.8 million barrels per day). In Europe the process of the refining sector’s rationalization continues with the reorganization of the low-specialization plants. The Asian continent has confirmed its leading role in the refining sector (32% of the total capacity).

Eni has published the hard copy version of World Oil and Gas Review and the web version available at www.eni.com/world-oil-gas-review-2012/wogr.shtml. Eni also publishes a World Energy and Economic Atlas for consultation of historical data on energy and economy. A free application for iPad is also available. The application compares oil and gas data by country and generates graphs which visualize and rank the relative dimension of a single country with respect to a benchmark of others.