Biggest Oil Producing Countries 1900–2025

In 1900, half the world's oil came from one city: Baku, in the Russian Empire. Who's on top today? Biggest Oil Producing Countries, ranked by crude oil production (crude + condensate), million barrels per day, 1900–2025. Data as of 2025 (yearly averages). Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:26 Unrest hits Baku (1905) 1:13 Iran strikes oil (1913) 1:38 Mexico passes Russia (1917) 2:00 Iran fuels the Royal Navy (1921) 2:18 Venezuela strikes it big (1924) 2:38 Venezuela takes #2 (1927) 3:18 Iraq opens a pipeline (1934) 4:01 War reaches Indonesia (1942) 4:23 Saudi Arabia takes off (1946) 4:56 Iran's oil crisis (1951) 5:16 Iran's oil flows again (1955) 5:47 OPEC is born (1960) 7:04 The USSR takes #1 (1974) 7:27 Alaska oil starts flowing (1978) 7:38 Revolution in Iran (1980) 8:44 Saudi Arabia takes #1 (1991) 9:44 Russia bounces back (2002) 10:56 Iraq passes Iran (2014) 11:06 Venezuela drops out (2016) 11:20 America is #1 again (2018) Sources Data: Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2026) Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Etemad & Luciani (1991); U.S. Energy Information Administration (2026) (via Our World in Data) Events in the narration: Lamar University (Jan 1901) Stanford University (dissertation abstract) (Jun 1905) EBSCO Research Starters (Apr 1909, Dec 1922) Princeton University (Soviet history project) (Nov 1917) RTÉ Century Ireland (Jun 1914) Vanderbilt J. of Transnational Law (Jan 1928) AIME Transactions (OneMine) (Aug 1934) Indische Kamparchieven (Dutch war archives) (Feb 1942) Saudi Aramco World (1962) (Sep 1945) Encyclopaedia Britannica (Apr 1951) U.S. State Department historian (FRUS) (Aug 1954) JODI (Joint Organisations Data Initiative) (Sep 1960) Library of Congress (GlobalSecurity.org) (Jan 1974) Alaska Public Media (Jun 1977) The National (Jan 1979, Sep 1980, Jul 2012) U.S. State Department historian (Dec 1991) Oil & Gas Journal (Jan 2003) U.S. Energy Information Administration (Jun 2016, Feb 2018) RFE/RL Universitat Pompeu Fabra (economics working paper) OPEC About the numbers Crude oil including condensate, in million barrels per day (the figure news reports usually quote). 1965–2025: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 2026. 1900–1964: historical estimates by Etemad & Luciani (via Our World in Data), converted from tonnes at the standard 7.33 barrels per tonne. Countries are shown within today's borders. 'Russia / USSR' is the Russian Empire before 1922 and the Soviet Union until 1991; from 1992 Russia is shown on its own. Each bar is a yearly average; the animation moves smoothly between years. Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2026) data is used under © Energy Institute; free to use with attribution. Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2026); Etemad & Luciani (1991); U.S. Energy Information Administration (2026) (via Our World in Data) data is used under CC BY 4.0. "Simulacra" by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. Data as of 2025 (yearly averages). Values come from the sources above.