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I downloaded their excel workbook, as I do every year. Some worrying numbers this year....

For only the second time in recorded oil reserve history, world proved oil reserves have decreased from the previous year. The last time this occurred was in 1990. This is in spite of INCLUDING oil sands deposits worldwide, including Canada. This hasn't been done in the past.

Production has decreased in both the U.S. and Mexico. This was entirely (and barely) offset by production increases in Canada. And that is entirely due to oil sand developments in Alberta.

Oil production in Saudi Arabia has decreased markedly, by 2.3 percent. This is probably purposeful as a price control. They supply 13.1 percent of world oil.

Oil production is down 9.6 percent in the U.K., who produce 2% of world oil.

Oil production is down 0.3 percent in Algeria, who produce 2.2% of world oil.

Oil production is down 4.9 percent in Nigeria, who produce 3.0% of world oil.

Oil production is down 3.9 percent in Venezuela, who produce 3.7% of world oil.

These numbers are globally balanced by increases in other countries. Total world oil production is up by 0.4 percent. However, depending on where you live, this is tainted by the certainty that reserves are vanishing in Europe and North America, and that oil sands cannot compensate.

Also noticed is the lack of a significant change in reserves data in any middle eastern or african oil producer. This might indicate a code of silence. The mid-east and africa possess over 70 percent of world oil reserves.

Also worrying is the steadily dropping natural gas reserves in North America, from 10.26 tcm in 1986, to 8.41 tcm in 1996, to 7.98 tcm in 2006. This suggests an exponential decline, although increasing production numbers argue against greater difficulty in increasing supply.

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