World Oil Reserves Fell by 3 Billion Barrels to 1,258 Billion Barrels in 2008, Giving an R/P Ratio of 42 Years

摘要

2008 was a quite exceptional year in oil and energy terms, asserts the Group Chief Executive of BP, Mr. Tony Hayward, in his foreword to the 2009 edition of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy (see the tables on the following pages). Everyone remembers the big dipper ridden by oil prices, which reached an all-time high in July before collapsing and losing at least 70% of their value, as well as the decline in world oil consumption. But one must also mention the fact that the annual average level of oil prices rose in 2008 for the seventh year in a row which, as Mr. Hayward stresses, was a first in the roughly 150-year history of the oil industry.