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Gallery: Top 10 Oil Cities
A look at 10 interesting cities in the O & G industry
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2) Houston
Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, and home to the the US’ oil & gas industry. Oil & gas, petroleum products and chemicals account for nearly two thirds of Houston’s exports, with the main trading destinations being Mexico, Brazil and Canada.
Houston is also a leading centre for the production and manufacture of oilfield equipment. The port of Houston is the tenth largest port in the world.
3) Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Dhahran is the centre of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. Huge oil reserves were first discovered in Dhahran in 1931 and in 1935 the first commercial oil well was drilled in the area. Today, the city is home to Saudi Aramco’s head office as well as the prestigious King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. As OPEC’s number 1 producer, Saudi Arabia has been pumping over 9.5 million bpd of oil per year.
4) Basra, Iraq
Iraq has the 4th largest oil reserves in the world at an estimated 115 billion barrels. The province of Basra is home to some of Iraq’s largest oil fields and the city itself is only 55 kilometres from the Arabian Gulf. The majority of Iraq’s oil exports leave the country from one of Basra’s 6 deep water ports – the largest of which being Umm Qasr, with 22 patforms.
Oil Company South Oil has its world headquarters in Basra.
Basra is also a key regional centre for the petrochemical industry.
5) Stavanger, Norway
Norway’s third-largest city is home to the country’s oil & gas industry and the country’s largest oil & gas company, Statoil. Oil was first discovered in the North Sea in 1969 and since then Norway has controlled huge offshore reserves.
The city also boasts one of the best oil & gas universities in Europe, the University of Stavanger.
On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas outside the Middle East.
6) Calgary, Canada
Calgary is the largest city in Alberta and Canda’s undisputed energy capital. Alberta’s oil reserves stand at approximately 1.5 billion barrels and the province produces nearly 500,000 barrels per day of conventional crude. Alberta’s oil sands reserves hold nearly 170 billion barrels of bitumen. More than two-thirds of all natural gas produced in Canada originates in Alberta, with an estimated recoverable conventional natural gas reserves base of 73 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).
7) Omsk, Siberia
Russia is the second-largest producer of dry natural gas and third-largest liquid fuels producer in the world, following the United States and Saudi Arabia. During 2012, liquid fuels production averaged 10.4 million bpd, according to the US’ Energy Information Authority. Much of the country’s production comes from the vast Siberian reserves, which are presided over by the city of Omsk.
In the 1950’s, following the discovery of enormous reserves of oil & gas in Siberia, an oil-refining complex was built, which today remains the largest complex in Russia. Oil giant Gazprom Neft has its Siberian headquarters in Omsk.
The town also features an annual tug of war competition between oil & gas workers (pictured).
8) Aberdeen, UK
Nicknamed the Granite City, Aberdeen is the home of the UK’s North Sea oil & gas industry. As of estimates in 2010, the UK has oil reserves of 3.1 billion barrels – more than any other EU member state.
As North Sea oil reserves dwindle, Aberdeen is trying to rebrand itself from the oil capital of Europe to the energy capital of Europe and technology transfer from oil into renewable energy and other industries is under way. As of 2013, Aberdeen remained a major world centre for undersea petroleum technology.
9) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
In 1910, Shell discovered Malaysia’s first oil field and the country now boasts the third largest oil reserves in the South Asian area, following China and India. Malaysia’s oil reserves are currently controlled by its national oil company Petronas. Petronas recently announced that it would be putting a renewed focus on domestic exploration projects, after striking oil for the first time in 24 years in 2013.
Malaysia holds reserves of 3.4 billion barrels of oil and 82.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Malaysia boasts one of the most extensive gas pipeline networks in the South East Asian region.
10) Singapore
While Singapore has no significant oil & gas reserves of its own, the city state makes our top 10 because of its importance as a world trading hub.
Oil & gas has been vital to Singapore’s economy since the first oil trade 1891. Singapore is in the top three export refining centres.
Thanks to its deepwater ports, Singapore is also the world’s largest oil-rig producer.