Global natural gas reserves by country 1960-2023

Russia has the largest proved natural gas reserves in the world. As of 2023, it held reserves worth 44.2 trillion standard cubic meters worth of the fossil fuel. Iran and Qatar followed, with more than 30 and 20 trillion cubic meters, respectively. Notable new discoveries have been made since 1960, when known reserves were only a fraction of what they are today. Determining proved reservesUsed as a source of energy generation and a feedstock in the chemicals industry, natural gas serves a variety of purposes. It is mainly transported in gaseous form via pipelines, but may be shipped via tanker vessels once liquefied. Proved reserves is a measure used to establish recoverable resource volumes. These are linked to known reservoirs and estimated through exploratory drilling. Since 1960, global proved natural gas reserves increased more than ten-fold, reaching a new peak at 206 trillion cubic meters in 2023. Of these, the majority are located in the Middle East. U.S. is world's largest natural gas producerThe United States is the world’s largest natural gas producer, despite proved reserves being only a third of Russia's. In 2023, the U.S. was responsible for nearly one trillion cubic meters of natural gas being extracted. This compared to a production volume of some 580 billion cubic meters by Russia.

俄罗斯拥有全球最大的已证实天然气储备。截至2023年，其储备量高达44.2万亿标准立方米，这一化石燃料的储备位居世界首位。伊朗和卡塔尔紧随其后，分别拥有超过30万亿和20万亿立方米的储备。自1960年以来，新的重大发现不断涌现，当时已知的储备量仅占现今储备量的一小部分。已证实储备量的确定作为能源生成和化工行业的原料来源，天然气发挥着多种作用。天然气主要通过管道以气态形式运输，但在液化后也可通过油轮运输。已证实储备量是衡量可回收资源体积的一种指标，它与已知的储层相关联，并通过勘探钻井进行估算。自1960年以来，全球已证实天然气储备增加了十倍以上，于2023年达到新的峰值，即206万亿立方米。其中，大多数储备位于中东地区。美国是全球最大的天然气生产国尽管已证实储备量仅为俄罗斯的三分之一，美国仍然是全球最大的天然气生产国。2023年，美国负责提取了近1万亿立方米的天然气，而俄罗斯的产量约为5800亿立方米。